Pretty much just what the title sais. I’ve heard many male authors just cannot wrote women and have such really…. weird descriptions of the women in their novels. I was wondering, how is the publicist okay with it? Do they not interfere? Other, especially female authors or workers from the publicist could help correct it, or at least tell him that he needs to change it. Why does it go through if at least 50% of people would find it really weird? Or do they just think “this book is for male readers anyways”?
by Koyucat
8 Comments
That would require admitting fault and also valuing the opinion of women. You don’t get to this point in your career by doing either of those.
don’t worry
more and more women authors are badly writing men
we can have it all!
honestly though I think we need to bring back the bitchy editors. because yah, too many books seem like no editor offered any input.
Perhaps some readers enjoy such characters. Or the books would become too generic if the characters or “female voice” was rewritten by the same editors. To me, such female characters often appear in books where I find a lot of the characters somewhat flat/similar anyway. But others clearly respond to them so what do I know.
For reference, female characters I dislike and find it difficult to relate to can be found in Game of Thrones and Norwegian Wood.
Because men are treated as if they know it all even when clearly mediocre or incompetent
A lot of storytelling involves exaggeration. Ridiculous larger-than-life characters are common in all forms of fiction. I remember reading some dumb romance novel where the lead is autistic but only ever in a wholesome and forgivable way, just as one example of how realism is sacrificed in order for the reader to live out a fantasy they would never get to experience in the real world.
Sherlock Holmes, Mr Darcy, Gandalf, Matilda, fairy godmothers etc – characters in all kinds of literature are often too good to be true/internally inconsistent if it suits the style.
Some people read because they want a rose tinted experience – this isn’t limited to women characters.
>Or do they just think “this book is for male readers anyways”?
They probably think “This guys sold plenty of his last book, I guess that’s what his readers will pay for”
It is sooo upsetting when I read a book recommended to me by a man and just can’t enjoy it because it’s so clear that the author just. Doesn’t think women are people beyond their bangability. So many books where the female characters are “mother” “hot” “frumpy” and that’s it. It’s to the point that if the main character is a woman and the book is written by a man I won’t even bother with it.
Also can we talk about Stephen King and young girls?? IT put me off Stephen King forever tbh
Imo this thing is not so wide spread as Reddit thinks it is. Most decent authors could write characters of opposite gender. Those who cannot are either not good writers, and/or don’t see the problem, and/or don’t know how to fix it – it’s not that easy to correct a writing weakness, especially with characters.