It appears this month many Booked Outers are pondering the same thing: is literature sexist?

As mentioned earlier in a news post, Dr Leslie Cannold gave a fantastic lunchbox/soapbox address at The Wheeler Centre on the importance of female fictional characters across the entire virtue spectrum from the good girl to the villainess. This was published in The Sydney Morning Herald as the opinion article Fighting for the right to be equally mediocre.

Benjamin Law’s article, A prize of one’s own: the case for an Aussie Orange over at ABC’s The Drum has attracted a lot of heated discussion. He weighs in on the debate over literary prizes that are open only to female authors. There’s been a push to introduce an Australian version of the UK’s Orange Prize which is awarded only to women. Benjamin – in his trademark witty/crass/intelligent way – unpacks the pros and cons and ends up not only backing the idea, but offers some inspiration as to potential corporate sponsorship.

According to a recent Guardian article, the problem isn’t just for grown-ups. Children’s literature is also male-dominated according to a recent study. A concept children’s author and illustrator Sally Rippin explores over at her blog in a post today, Is the Hungry Caterpillar a boy or a girl?