veronica_rich: (writer's block)
[personal profile] veronica_rich
Who else out there is female but prefers writing male characters to female ones, by and large? I don't mean in the sense of having someone to lust over or wish you were with - I'm talking about having empathy with that character enough to want to tell a story about him.

While there are certainly moments in time I wish I could escape the biological processes of being female (including water retention), the fact is that I like this gender better than I'd like being a man, I suspect. And I confess, also partly because it's still socially easier to openly sigh over men if you're a woman, rather than if you're a gay man. There are other reasons, but I'll not go into those.

Certainly I prefer watching male characters largely if I think they're attractive, both in body and interest of character. But there's something beyond that, and I think it may be more than simply "the guys get the best adventures." I never felt the need to write about Buffy or Bones (not the "Trek" one) or Xena, though I appreciate and enjoy all of them. The last female I really would have had any interest in writing about, had I been old enough (I was 5), was Wonder Woman/Diana. There are plenty of female characters I could pick if I simply wanted to BE them or emulate them.

But that's not why I write. I write fanfic because I see something there that either the creator didn't, or didn't have time or inclination to explore further. For me, fanfic - and original fic - is character-driven. I'm not so good with the plot, I usually treat it as secondary (and I pay for it with frequent writer's block, because it's sort of necessary to drive things along). And when I write, I generally prefer to write male characters, both in fanfic and original fic.

I've tried writing female characters, but I don't enjoy it as much - even being female doesn't seem to help much in that respect. I simply don't find them as fascinating as male characters. When I was younger, this made me feel like a traitor to the cause, but I eventually learned to accept what I am and concentrate on the choices that stem from that.

Date: 2007-04-15 02:34 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] veronica-rich.livejournal.com
No, I really think I just like writing for writing's sake - to tell a story without regard to the gender of the character. If you write male characters, nobody's going to examine their motives as men, or their speech as men, or their actions as men - they may argue and examine it, but it's likely going to be in the framework of non-gender motivation, influences, causes, etc. If you write a female character, SO many readers infuse the tiniest thing with a world of gender critique and get lost in it, not really paying attention to the character as a *character.* I think this has happened to Elizabeth Swann in the same way I've seen it happen to plenty of other female characters who become trapped in what they can do - or, conversely, are forced into illogical actions/situations just to prove "a girl can do it." (Interestingly, the only male character I've seen analyzed equally to death in POTC is Jack Sparrow, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's in large part because of his androygynous - meaning, partly female - qualities.)

Date: 2007-04-15 07:54 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] erinya.livejournal.com
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.

Date: 2007-04-15 08:47 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] veronica-rich.livejournal.com
They get to be whole people where women don't.

Correction: They get to be whole people without readers being AMAZED that they're whole people.

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