That all men are pigs

Von Kottwitz notes that representations of males in English novels are overwhelmingly negative.

This is understandable in novels authored by men: novel readers are by and large women; men writing novels will therefore, like all men confiding in women, want to say "all men are pigs", because to say so is thought to deliver their real intended message -- "but the fact that I can say so shows amply that I am not and, therefore -- love me".

Why women novelists should want to say that all men are pigs, is less clear. Is it perhaps a matter of trying to earn popularity by appealing to girl-solidarity? (Us-against-them sort of thing).

Thus, English-speaking women are thought by novelists to want to see men portrayed in bad light. The question therefore arises: do they really want to see men in bad light? Or is it another misperception of novelists, another proof that to be a novelist is to be hopelessly cut off from the world?

(After all, sitting all day at a desk writing is not a particularly good way to learn about the world).