Sexist familiarity

There's a great letter in today's New York Times Book Review from New Yorker writer Joan Acocella objecting to NYTBR reviewers referring to female authors by their first names and noting that the reviewers never assume this familiar attitude when referring to male authors, who always get last-name treatment.

I am writing, as I have before, to ask why the Book Review allows reviewers to call female artists by their first names.

Read the rest here.

Sheepish note: It seems that I myself have been guilty of this infraction in the headings of my posts about O'Connor. I think I used her first name because it makes the subject of the posting so instantly obvious and recognizable. Nonetheless. Mea culpa.