Today I came across a controversial Tiktok talking about how J.K. Rowling used a male pen name for her writing. You’d have to be living under a rock to not know her stance on transgender issues, so why would she use a male pen name?
Now, I won’t debate on the controversy, so I will delete any comments regarding that topic. So lets focus on why male pen names are used by woman at all. The idea of male pen names for women made me curious as to why authors often used them throughout the history of publishing. There had to be a reason why women use a male name or initials for pen names, right?
After I did a little deeper research I came up with a simple answer-Misogyny in the publishing industry.
The issue of female authors having to hide their gender has been a problem for centuries, dating back as far as the 19th century. Women writing outside of the romance genre were often criticized because publishing was a male dominated field. Female writers risked social backlash in some cases if they didn’t write within the genre they were expected. If you wanted any sort of respect, women were forced to publish anonymously. Sadly, it still happens today.
Some of the most noted were Mary Ann Evans who became George Eliot to ensure her work was taken seriously. In the Victorian era the Brontë sisters published as Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell for fear their books wouldn’t be respected if known to be written by women. The most recognizable being Emily Brontë (Ellis Bell) who wrote Wuthering Heights.
Charlotte Brontë (Currer Bell), who wrote Jane Eyre, explained why she and her sisters used male pen names when publishing their first novels in the “Biographical Notice of Ellis and Acton Bell” (1850), which she wrote after the deaths of Emily and Anne:
“We had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice; we had noticed how critics sometimes use for their chastisement the weapon of personality, and for their reward, a flattery which is not true praise.
We did not like to declare ourselves women, because—without at the time suspecting that our mode of writing and thinking was not what is called ‘feminine’—we had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice.”
Though progress has been made, the bias hasn’t fully disappeared. J.K. Rowling in the 1990s used initials instead of “Joanne” to appeal to the fantasy market who are often young male years. She later chose a male name Robert Galbraith to publish crime fiction and avoid fame-driven bias.
Some women today still use initials or pseudonyms in genres like horror or sci-fi, where male authors are more common. Until recent years agents and publishers suggested it simply to reach certain readers.
It wasn’t only Rowling who used male pen names in modern writing. Nora Roberts writes under the name J.D. Robb in the In Death series to separate the crime fiction from her popular romance novel brand.
S.E. Hinton (Susan Eloise Hinton), writer of her 1967 novel The Outsiders was advised by her publisher to use initials to disguise her gender so male readers would take her teen gang novel seriously.
Even today we are faced with misogyny in writing and it’s very prevalent in the app writing community. This is a place where the male centered stereotypes run deep. The most obvious space is Webnovel who bases there genres on female or male lead characters. Female writers are often encouraged to stick to romance novels, while male writers are pushed to write fantasy and manga style books. This carries into other apps as well, including Ringdom, that states to authors they are a male protagonist focused platform.
The idea that males should stick to things like fantasy and horror, and women should stick to romance and feel good family genres is a long time, outdated idea. Many male writers have started to branch out into romance and vice versa. It’s time women are looked at as worthy in all areas of writing, but we still have a long way to go.
Loretta Kendall 