And while the initial announcement might not have been intended as a broad statement about sexism, comments she made after that announcement have been indeed. The Newsweek article linked above in the post is an example, where James very directly blames former lack of success squarely on sexism rather than taking personal responsibility.

Also keep in mind that when James was pretending to be a man, she penned several blog posts that were downright sexist themselves. One of the biggest issues in this situation wasn’t that James felt discriminated against, but that she acted like a complete hypocrite in the process of trying to overcome how she felt she was being treated (why it’s laughable when I see women commenting here about sisterhood, in defense of a female who demeaned women in a much broader stroke).

That said, I’d bet money that James’ performance was different as a man than as a woman… but not necessarily better.

Finally, as the child of a single mother who works/ed in a heavily male-dominated environment, and works her ass off, and is spectacular at what she does… my mom knows for a fact that she has frequently been paid quite a bit less than her male counterPARTS (pun intended). So if James found a way around that kind of bull—-, more power to her. If she was a man, no one would be judging her. Oh wait… isn’t that how all this started?

I disagree completely with most of this article.

I think that’s key. You can certainly be a successful female freelance writer. There are plenty of them out there earning six figure incomes, writing for nationally-known publications, etc. (just two possible measures of “success” based on different areas of freelancing). So marketing yourself while using a woman’s name in no way means you can’t succeed. I just find it sad that James’ choice to sport a new gender seems to have so many people forgetting that (not here so far, but elsewhere it’s fascinating how many people are willing to jump on the “I was born with a vagina, so woe is me” train rather than looking at their circumstances as individuals — including how they present themselves, market themselves, and frankly feel about themselves on the professional front.

That’s the catch. Know your audience and market to your audience . . . if your audience is a bunch of men, don’t write like a self-pitying, gender bias claiming female, it’s not going to sell.

Lillie – Great story, I hope you are sharing it with the web community. We need more people like you in the world.

Callie – Lame comment. I’m sure there is a gender bias (due to men preferring writing/branding with a certain voice/style), just like I’m sure there is a Good Ole Boys network. Neither is a good thing if you’re not a part of the benefiting group.

Ever think maybe ‘James’ just did a better job of selling to his market than ‘Jamesette” ever did? That’s what it looks like to me.

Don’t get me started on why my brilliant wife refuses to charge her clients more . . . I’m sure it’s just gender bias driving down her compensation.