Tuesday, January 17, 2006

What She Knows About Men

I don't think one should ever be cautious in love. Never. Just enjoy it.
Beryl Bainbridge contributes a fascinating piece on men and sex to the first issue of the Observer's Woman supplement with plenty of intriguing revelations about her life. She prefers men drunk. She once had it off on a chicken farm. She doesn't believe a husband can rape his wife.

On writing and gender, she says:
Writing has nothing to do with gender, only the imagination. Men have more time to write because the women are at home making the meals and bringing up the cups of coffee. There are an awful lot of very good women writers, but in the past many women didn't write because it wasn't their role. They had to keep quiet about it. Jane Austen used to write when everyone had gone out.
Murdo NacLeod's photo that goers with the article sadly isn't available online - but shows Ms. Bainbridge taking a big drag on a ciggy ... after she said she'd given up for her health. Tut tut. Of course though it could just be the typical bad girl pose (which she does very well).

Previous posts on Bainbridge:

According to Beryl (4/12/04)
Johnson's Dictionary (7/4/05)
Bainbridge at Seventy (5/10/05)
Beryl on Bernice (16/10/05)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

lol. she prefers men drunk.

Of course writing has nothing to do with gender. I've read some short stories written from a male's perspective, but when the author of these stories turned out to be a woman, I was quite shocked.

Anonymous said...

Yep. I agree. After reading Randall Jarrell's poem, "Next Day", with a class a few days ago, many students were frankly "amazed", "startled", "flabbergasted", etc., that a man could so convincingly write something from a woman's POV.

Unknown said...

"Women have so many pressures on them these days. Men don't have that. The amount of times you pass a bald man with a big belly who is deemed attractive are countless."

Sigh....how true.
Sham

Greenbottle said...

i don't understand why women are obsessed with this women vs men thing... not only about books but in everything!

it may be just me , but for the life of me i can not understand how women can wear all those women shoes...i mean aren't they uncomfortable? if they can wear these crazy shoes well, i suppose it's understandable that women should be under men in more ways than one...

bibliobibuli said...

laynie - true - and i think never more so than with annie proulx ...

arty-me - found a copy of the poem here. Many thanks. Another man who writes astonishingly gobsmackingly well from a woman's POV is Caryll Phillips in "Cambridge" ...

sham - i do wish hairy men would make more effort to go for chest and back waxes ...

greenbottle - you'll be happy to know that i wear flat shoes 'cos i'm unbalanced enough!

Anonymous said...

It is a great poem. Glad you like it. And Greenbottle, I take it you've never heard Kirsty Maccoll's "In These Shoes"? The last English verse in particular.

Now, which gender was in the submissive role again?

Anonymous said...

My mother always said to me: It does not matter what you have got between your legs, it is what you do with it that matters! And so, is with your brain...