In other words, they're more free than female characters. They get to be whole people where women don't. So nice for them...
I don't know...it's very hard for me to separate characters/personality from gender. You're either writing someone who does enjoy inherent privilege, or you're not. It just seems odd to me to think of men as genderless people. When I write male characters, I tend to be very conscious of how they react as men, how their reactions would be different from a woman's, how they act out their masculinity. Now, a lot of my writing lately has dealt explicitly with and problematized gender.
As for Jack, I think his androgyny makes him more complex and thus more subject to analysis. In fact, characters who are in some way androgynous--and thus actually transcending gender--are the most interesting of all.
no subject
I don't know...it's very hard for me to separate characters/personality from gender. You're either writing someone who does enjoy inherent privilege, or you're not. It just seems odd to me to think of men as genderless people. When I write male characters, I tend to be very conscious of how they react as men, how their reactions would be different from a woman's, how they act out their masculinity. Now, a lot of my writing lately has dealt explicitly with and problematized gender.
As for Jack, I think his androgyny makes him more complex and thus more subject to analysis. In fact, characters who are in some way androgynous--and thus actually transcending gender--are the most interesting of all.