Women are better at writing about sex, says Martin Amis
During a discussion about his new book
Lionel Asbo: the State of England at the Hay festival earlier this week, English novelist Martin Amis praised women writers for their ability to write sex better than men.
"Once a man is writing a sex scene he's feeling omnipotent" he said, and "the question of potency is a big issue for men. It is the great hidden weakness in men, that potency can fail, and it's not something that troubles women."
A writer who has attracted the wrath of feminists, and is not known for underselling himself, Amis claims that women are more able to write realistically about it in all of its awkward and messy glory – no holds barred – and don’t get carried away the way men do, though he does concede that "it’s almost impossible to write about it, ever".
His statement is supported by the fact that in the last 19 years, only two women have won the
Literary Review’s Bad Sex in Fiction Award.
Lionel Asbo: State of England is a satire about a not very successful petty criminal who wins £140 million on the lottery, and features a 15 year old character who has a sexual affair with his grandmother.
Amis, who now lives in America with his wife, worries that his homeland has become obsessed with celebrity culture.