Lets talk about Gene Wolfe guys (If you don't know who this is, get the fuck out)

Many, both fans and established mainstream authors alike consider him among the best, if not the best, writers of this day. Not the best sci-fi or fantasy or genre or speculative fiction writer. The best writer, period.

Regardless of whether you think this is deserved or not (and i'm sure some of you must find him overrated in spite of his general lack of mainstream success; I myself do not), the issue at hand is whether not he is sexist as seems to have been the accusation made in the past several years.

So, there you have it. -Is- Gene Wolfe sexist, as a writer? And even he is, does it matter? Does it make his work any less good or bad than you already see it?

I myself do not think he is a sexist. I think that, no less than any other writer of any stripe, he is not free from flaws, and one is that he does not have a particular talent for writing women (The few books he has written showcasing a female POV stand in evidence of this, I feel). To compensate, I believe he tends to keep female characters as a secondary or inconsequential to the story as can be so that attention is not attracted, though this clearly doesn't always work. In the end this gives a sense of dismissal to critiquing, feminist reader one might suppose.

I can see how this might impact many female readers and even some males, but for myself this is a non-issue since I don't much pay notice to how relevant or important characters of varying gender, race, etc are to a story. It would bother me if they were portrayed offensively I suppose, but I don't think any of them truly are. The characters may have a somewhat patriarchal sentiment toward women, but it's often makes sense that they would be when one considers the circumstances and environs in which they exist.

Anyways, long fucking post, didn't expect it to be. I am interested to see what others think, though.