By Sharanya Gopinathan

Just last month, we were talking about this truly glorious Twitter thread called #ThanksForTyping, where people were outing male authors who had gotten their wives to type out their manuscripts for them, sometimes twice or thrice.

Today, we can’t stop laughing (and cringing) at this hilarious new hashtag that’s been doing the rounds called #ThingsOnlyWomenWritersHear. It reveals all the sexist comments women writers hear on the daily, from questions about their “target audience” to enquiries about their lack of cats and children.

It also reminds us of this book by Joanna Russ, called How to Suppress Women’s Writing, which is a really funny read full of examples of the way women writers are read and reviewed. It also made it to our Feminist Reading List, which you can check out here and here.

Here are some of our favourite #ThingsOnlyWomenWritersHear tweets so far:

“Have you considered using a pseudonym so people don’t know you’re a woman?”

Because it’s 1842 & I’m a Bronte. #ThingsOnlyWomenWritersHear

— Emma Olson (@jonesing4words) April 18, 2017

“You plagiarized this from [male author] despite the chronological impossibility.”#ThingsOnlyWomenWritersHear

— Victoria Aveyard🇺🇸 (@VictoriaAveyard) April 18, 2017

(Before 2016): “So you’re a mommy blogger?” “Nope. Just a blogger. No kids.” *So…a lifestyle blogger?” #ThingsOnlyWomenWritersHear

— Rachel Held Evans (@rachelheldevans) April 19, 2017

#ThingsOnlyWomenWritersHear “Your demographic won’t get this.” My demographic? “Yeah, middle aged women.” …I write horror fantasy.

— Maria Reynard (@ScarredFox) April 18, 2017

To a woman writer with children: “How do you juggle kids and writing?”
To a woman writer with no children: “Do you regret not having kids?” https://t.co/9FCHIHzu2G

— Joanne Harris (@Joannechocolat) April 18, 2017

Them: Romance novels are just wish fulfillment fantasies.

Me: Yes I wished to write a book AND IT CAME TRUE #ThingsOnlyWomenWritersHear

— Tiffany Reisz (@tiffanyreisz) April 18, 2017

“Women just write about emotions. Men write about ideas.” #ThingsOnlyWomenWritersHear

— Racheline Maltese (@racheline_m) April 17, 2017

“Clearly you were sleeping with this male expert, and the book’s conclusions are really his, not yours.” #ThingsOnlyWomenWritersHear

— Summer Brennan (@summerbrennan) April 19, 2017

“Yes you have a degree in that topic and a decade of work, but you won’t be taken seriously as an expert in it.” #ThingsOnlyWomenWritersHear

— Summer Brennan (@summerbrennan) April 19, 2017

“I’m surprised you wrote a decent male character.”
I only know how to write about uterus infested genders, obvi #ThingsOnlyWomenWritersHear

— Tabicus (@tabicusmaximus) April 19, 2017

Premiere of CHOCOLAT. Famous (male) author pushes past me without a glance to congratulate my (male) publisher. #ThingsOnlyWomenWritersHear

— Joanne Harris (@Joannechocolat) April 17, 2017

#ThingsOnlyWomenWritersHear How many cats do you have? pic.twitter.com/E0RY9Y0cFK

— Zee (@growingupzee) April 18, 2017

This trend has also sparked off parallel hashtags, such as #ThingsOnlyWomenHear and #ThingsOnlyWomenOfColourHear, all of which are worth checking out. Of course, several cranky men have turned up to comment on these posts, and if you’re looking for a different kind of laugh (the despairing, incredulous kind), those comments might be worth checking out too.