You’re probably familiar with the synonymous terms “pseudonym” and “pen name.” But did you know that there is a website that will give you your very own white-Anglo-Saxon-Protestant-sounding alias?
You can find the website at aaww.org/whitepenname, and it was started by the Asian-American Writers’ Workshop in response to Michael Derrick Hudson’s submission of a poem for the 2015 Best American Poetry anthology under the Chinese pseudonym Yi-Fen Chou, according to The Huffington Post. The poem was published and accredited to the pseudonym after it was rejected 40 times under Hudson’s real name.
Hudson’s poem was published next to others written by poets belonging to a minority, according to The New York Times; these poets submitted their work under their real names. Hudson’s decision to use a non-American pen name to get an edge makes light of the fact that minorities often find it difficult to make a name for themselves in literature because of their race.
Hudson didn’t do it because his gender prevents him from writing in a world in which only men’s voices are heard and respected. He didn’t do it because his race affects people’s desire to read his work. He didn’t do it because he was at a disadvantage. He did it because he wanted the spotlight ― which in many ways he already had ― and because he wanted to take advantage of another culture’s artistic value. By claiming to be a Chinese poet, when in reality, he is white, Hudson donned what many have called a “yellowface.”
According to The New York Times, the top five best-selling authors for this week are Andy Weir for “The Martian,” James Patterson and David Ellis for “The Murder House,” Jojo Moyes for “After You,” Lee Child for “Make Me” and David Lagercrantz for “The Girl in the Spider’s Web.” Weir has spent 19 weeks on the best-selling list. This information speaks volumes about not only the talents of these authors but also the marketability of white authors.
While three are non-American, every single one of the top five are white, and only one is female. These unchangeable facts are not meant to target white men, but to fully understand the pervasiveness of white privilege in media, particularly in novels, this has to be talked about.
While a pen name does offer the liberty of expressing ideas unhindered by a connection to one’s personal, private self, it also allows writers to distance themselves from prejudices against their race and gender, which all too often accompany any foray into authorship.
Some notable authors who wrote under pen names are the Brontë sisters, who published their works under the names Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell, according to The Guardian. They reportedly did so to avoid publicity, but the real reason is rooted in sexist beliefs that still exist to this day. Women were not supposed to partake in a masculine activity like writing. So in order to publish their work and avoid publicity and/or ostracism, the sisters wrote under male pen names.
One doesn’t choose to become an author for the sake of spending months, years even, planning, writing, editing and rewriting a book for it to not bring multiple years’ worth of returns. So it makes sense that part of the process of writing and publishing a novel is branding it with a name that will encourage its intended audience, as well as those outside the audience, to purchase and avidly read it.
Joanne Rowling reportedly took the name J.K. Rowling after her publisher, Barry Cunningham, suggested it because he thought that young boys wouldn’t want to read a book written by a woman, according to the internationally best-selling author’s website. For her most recent book, a crime thriller called “The Cuckoo’s Calling,” Rowling published under the name Robert Galbraith, a distinctly masculine moniker, according to CNN. She said it was to start fresh, but one can’t help but feel that her decision was somewhat influenced by a desire to keep her male readers engaged.
For Rowling, the Brontë sisters and countless others, their success as authors was only possible once they made the strategic decision to write under a male name, a name that allowed them to ignore the possibility of having a smaller audience because of their gender. Women who write, especially those who write novels that fall into genres like action, crime, mystery, thriller and history, fear that their work will be ignored, and so the only solution is to market themselves as men.
Not only do females feel as if they need to publish novels under a white male persona in order to be successful in a market that is unequivocally dominated by white men, non-white individuals do as well. Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski was born in Ukraine; he published multiple novels, such as “Heart of Darkness,” “Lord Jim” and “The Secret Sharer”; he is probably better known by the WASP-ish name Joseph Conrad. Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin was a French writer who penned under the name George Sand, which suggests that she preferred the anglicized, and male, pseudonym rather than her own romantic name.
This past September, Viola Davis became the first black woman to win the Emmy Award for best actress in a drama for her role in the TV series “How to Get Away with Murder.” It’s the year 2015, just over 50 years since the Civil Rights Act was passed, and only recently was a black female recognized for her outstanding work on the TV screen. Admittedly, there has only been one black female lead in a TV series, Kerry Washington in “Scandal,” since Diahann Carroll in “Julia” in 1968 and Teresa Graves in “Get Christy Love” in the early 70s, according to the Huffington Post.
This all goes back to how race affects marketability; just as white, especially male, authors have it easier when it comes to navigating the seas of a career in writing, white actors appear to find more fame. The top three highest-grossing movies, according to Entertainment Weekly, are “Avatar,” “Titanic” and “Jurassic World,” all of which were directed by white men and star a predominantly white cast.
While the “White Pen Name Generator” was a good-natured response to an individual’s choice to use race as a means to further his own agenda, this unique spin on the idea of a pen name is no more than an indication of the power behind a name. It is the easiest solution to problems that are as deeply rooted into history as time itself; sexism and racism permeate every aspect of life, including the entertainment industry. When you find yourself working in an industry in which you’re disadvantaged, it only makes sense to find a way to press on. Hudson, privileged because of both his race and gender, had no such claim to do so.
