Critical Appraisal and Masculine Authority: The Boys Clubs’ Derogatory Method of Reading Canadian Feminist Speculative Fiction

Culture scholars have shown that cultural intermediaries play a crucial role in the reproduction of inequalities in consecration (Corse and Westervelt, 2002; Maguire Smith and Matthews, 2012; Miller, 2014; Ridgeway, 2011; Steinberg, 1990 cited in Bourdieu, 2010). However, the analysis of gender inequalities in reception and canonization has focused on individual bias, neglecting the contribution of scholars of hegemonic masculinity about the importance of patterned practices in the reproduction of men’s dominance over women (Connell and Messerschmidt, 2005). Given that art worlds are not settings where typical markers of hegemonic masculinity are valued, such as money and physical prowess, what are the tools of hegemonic masculinity in art worlds? I answer this question through a comparative analysis of the reception of two iconic Canadian feminist novels: L’Euguélionne (2012 [1976]) by Louky Bersianik and The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) by Margaret Atwood. Building on feminist scholarship, I find that the discursive apparatus of hegemonic masculinity in art worlds consists of a derogatory method of reading employed by critics in newspapers. This method of reading is founded on three discursive components: (i) a reductive reading of feminist politics; (ii) a man-centred assessment of feminism and (iii) a questioning of women’s creative credibility which belittles the contribution of feminist authors. By translating the concept of boys’ club (Delvaux, 2019) and identifying its derogatory method of reading, I propose a framework that illuminates how critical appraisal shapes discursive resources available for both professional and non-professional readers to draw upon for evaluation and classification of women’s cultural productions and feminist engagements.