Sexism and writing
Just wanted to clear a few things up. I’ve had a few reviews over the last couple of weeks suggesting that GHOST IN THE MACHINE is sexist.
For clarity, I am not, as a person, in any way sexist. Quite the opposite, in fact. In my writing, I have expressed and reflected a certain element of sexism to reflect the reality of the world. GHOST IN THE MACHINE features elements of blatant sexism from the start, primarily from the mouth of Keith Miller – if you read to the end, you’ll know what I mean by that. It also features strong female characters, PC Caldwell and DS McNeill among others, and all of the incompetency is from male characters – so much so that I’ve had to introduce competent male officers in later books, such as Bill Lamb and Colin Methven (though you haven’t encountered him yet).
Cullen himself is troubled – he is something of a ‘shagger’, but is growing out of it. People should understand that you can reflect a real world and deal with those issues without becoming that yourself – Cullen sees a fairly broken world, and has been burnt by a previous relationship. He knows what he wants but he goes about it the wrong way.
I would hate people to think that I am sexist or a proponent of some of the views of certain characters. There is no real avatar character in the book, though Cullen does occasionally share some of my thoughts about Edinburgh and its architectures. You can choose to avoid things or to tackle them head on – I’ve done the latter.
— Ed
Neil McDermott
Ed,
I’m surprised that after reading your books, that anyone would think that. I think you encapsulate a view and a way of life that is prevalent in Scotland (and particularly DC Cullen’s age group and profession) extremely well. It never crossed my mind that the characters you were creating/describing actually reflected your own outlook.
Keep up the good work!
ALAN BROWN
Thank you for Scott Cullen. So far I have not noticed sexism. In my opinion the conversations you describe in the books tend to give women the upper hand
Fi Jackson
Well written and look forward to your next book.
Guess you will get praise and criticism but think if you had written it to satisfy those saying its sexist it would not have been so real.
Bernie Robinson
I’ve recently read Ghost in the Machine and to be honest I didn’t notice that it was sexist. I thought it portrayed things in a realistic way. Keep up the good work. Looking forward to reading the next one in the series.
Sarah Young
Having read the first two of your books I personally have not noticed any sexism. They were both very enjoyable reads and I hope you keep up the great work your doing 🙂