I follow Roxane Gay on Twitter and Tumblr. I read her blog and articles on Salon.com. She says some incredibly insightful things about politics, race, and gender. I also enjoy her fiction. It is strange and beautiful. Below is an excerpt from a Tumblr post of hers. It is a longer version of her answer in an interview she did with BrooklynBased.com:

In March 2013, Rob Spillman of Tin House spoke to VIDA about the magazine’s submission stats. He told the interviewer: “Our unsolicited submissions are nearly 50/50 [men vs women] consistently year to year, and our acceptance rate is also 50/50. Agented submissions average closer to 2/3 men versus 1/3 women, with acceptance rates around 60/40. Interestingly, the number of agents who are sending these submissions are 2/3 women versus 1/3 men. We were also surprised to find that although we solicited equal numbers of men and women, men were more than twice as likely to submit after being solicited.” The Tin House findings suggest that women writers and women in the industry may be complicit in devaluing the work of female writers. What would you say we could be doing better ourselves to help balance the scales?

Roxane Gay replied, “Women may need to be more aggressive and take more chances in putting their work out there, but you know, maybe women aren’t the problem. Maybe men need to spend more time on their work before sending it out in the world. It’s curious that the default assumption here is that the problem lies with women. “

Once again, it seems women’s writing is being devalued. And most alarmingly, female writers are devaluing their OWN work. Gay states, “Women may need to be more aggressive and take more chances in putting their work out there.” I agree wholeheartedly. I find this is incredibly true for my work. I love to write, but I have been so shy to put my writing out in the world. I am a good writer, but I am insecure. I fear rejection. Every writer is rejected at some point, so to not even try, is an absurdity. And I have been guilty of this absurdity, more than I would care to admit.

Maybe some of my insecurity comes from my gender identity. I am not pointing fingers here, but I think most people would agree it is tough to grow up female in this country. As a white woman growing up middle class, I had more advantages than many women. But I cannot pretend it is not a factor. I tell myself I am talented and fierce. But insecurity so often stops my hand or shuts my mouth. Not always, but sometimes. I don’t want to be that type of person or that type of woman.

It makes me think of my niece. I want her to be fearless and fierce always. I don’t want her to ever question her worth because she is a woman. So for her, for me, and for all those other women, I am working on it. I will submit a couple more pieces of writing in January. And I am slowly learning to shut my mouth less and use my voice more.