I’ve always seen David Foster Wallace accused of being sexist and misogynistic. Yet I’ve never seen any evidence of this in his works or anywhere else.

Yep, he has characters who are sexist, but check this out: we live in a world that is sexist and misogynistic, so having characters who putatively live in that world and who never, ever exhibit those characteristics would be rather inauthentic, wouldn’t it?

A lot of people it seems have trouble discerning fiction from reality.

Here’s is DFW’s reading list from his former course.

Notice anything?

Yeah, six of the nine authors are women.

Outside of a specific course in the women’s studies department, that is highly unusual. I’d bet in 99 out of 100 English departments you walk into, 90% of the assigned authors would be male.

The specific accusations that DFW is a misogynist seem to spring from envy than anything else, and misreading of his works by those who should know better.

But when you have an ideology to push, “knowing better” is no obstacle.