Is Memoir Writing Women’s Work?
If not, then why the man-shaped hole in the memoir canon?
When women hit 40, something amazing happens: women around you begin to reveal their closeted desire to write a memoir. Some of them are already writing them; others still coaxing the courage to conjure the ghosts from deep within. But they all want to write their story.
I have many questions about why women who have had successful careers, families, and trajectories with no relationship to professional writing suddenly want to spill their blood across the page, memoir-style.
My first question is, naturally, "Is everyone's life interesting enough to warrant a memoir?" To which everyone knows the answer:
Yes, to each self, the self's own story is a marvel.
But another, more stubborn, nagging question tugs at my mind. Why don't any of the men I know want to write a memoir? Why in the hell aren't more men writing memoirs– they certainly seem to think enough of themselves. (My British husband assures me that memoir-writing is an upper-class male hobby in classist Britain).
The answer was staring me, smugly in the face. I just had to join an online memoir writers group to find it (because, hello, obviously, I am writing a memoir myself, lol). Ready? Drumroll, please.
