#keykeepers

I’m DMing a campaign for the first time, and I had to draw all my NPCs... I’m going to reveal them as the players meet them!! Stay tuned for that!! >:^)

James Patterson without a doubt is a very successful author when it comes to revenue and quantity of books. His plug and chug process appeals to mass-market fiction and will always have retail success; his works can be found on the best seller list. Quite easy to do when you have over 300 titles to your name. The odds, like being a cis white male, will always be in your favor.

Patterson actually began his career in the 1970s in advertising, where if you were not a straight, white male, well...you were not welcome into the ‘old boy’s club’ and remained outside the Room of White Male Entitlement.

The Room is a metaphor for the ways in which marginalized groups are ‘locked out’ of opportunities and face an inability to access the same opportunities and resources. However, the way to think about is that cis, white males who are given ‘keys’ by society can always enter the Room without questioning, obstacles, or any pushback whatsoever.

Fast forward to over fifty years later, Patterson is going on the record to state it is apparently very, very hard in these modern times for heterosexual/cis white guys to succeed, and perhaps are being shut out of the Room?

According to a recent Times of London (link to a WA Post response article here) interview with James, “just another form of racism. What’s that all about? Can you get a job? Yes. Is it harder? Yes. It’s even harder for older writers. You don’t meet many 52-year-old white males.”

You mean the demographic who makes up the majority of our CEOs, governmental leaders, industry gatekeepers, and dominate the wealth lists, maybe the fiction bestseller lists too James? The very same demographic who has created and upheld the Room of White Male Entitlement many of us cannot access?

In fact, James is a great example of those in lounging the Room not having to put in a lot of effort to attain success:

Patterson delivers exhaustive notes and outlines, sometimes running 80 pages, to co-authors, his printer regularly discharging collaborators’ efforts like lottery tickets. “The success rate when I write the outline is almost 100 percent. When other people do, it’s 50 to 60 percent,” he says.

Is it possible that white men aren’t the most deserving to enter this proverbial Entitlement room? That maybe a woman, BIPOC and/or LBGTQ+ people are more talented and perhaps getting the so-called opportunities over the cis white males that James is referencing is due to merit or talents? Of course, I think most of us can agree with that.

But for those of a similar background to James, admitting that would challenge the Keykeepers of White Male Entitlement, those ensuring that keys remain limited and hard to get for those who are not cis, white males. And if anyone does get in, comments like Patterson’s have an implied undertone of suggesting those of marginalized backgrounds aren’t getting in by merit but rather ‘a quota.’

Thus, challenging the status quo breaks the established rule keeping the Entitlement room locked from access: it is always the marginalized person’s fault for being locked outside. You were never invited inside because you weren’t qualified enough, and now you are being invited inside only out of diversity needs, not of merit.

Therefore, it is important to challenge these notions of Keykeeping, regardless of whether malicious intent or not, for these comments ensure that the Room remains locked and many of us remain outside the opportunities and merits we deserve. While I do see that James has issued a Twitter apology, and certainly don’t discount that ageism is a concern within publishing, its not the older cis white men who are getting shut out of opportunities.