Although the disparity between male and female authors speaks to biases in the contemporary publishing world (that’s one reason so many female authors like J.K. Rowling use their initials rather than their full names), it also serves as a reminder of just how male-centric the literary canon is. And it’s important to remember that that historical disparity comes down to a lack of opportunity rather than a lack of talent or interest. After all, what makes Jane Austen an outlier isn’t that she wrote novels, but that she happened to come from a family who actively pushed her to publish her work and advocated for her within the male-dominated publishing industry. There’s presumably an entire lost canon of female authors whose work never saw the light of day because either their families or societies discouraged them from trying to publish. Loganberry’s art piece emphasizes the concrete impact centuries of bias have had on our ability to read books written by women.

Fair point, though. All the various "gender gaps" aren't magically fixed just because people are equal in modern times. Granted that's not usually what the Tumblr-ers are whining about, it's still an interesting perspective.