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Women Describe Themselves As Male Authors Would, And ‘Stranger Things’ Star Has The Best Response
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Creative writing is challenging. As well as crafting an engaging, well researched and coherent story, one must also create interesting and believable characters that readers can find an emotional connection with.
If this viral Twitter thread is anything to go by, it seems that many male authors are struggling to create female characters that women can empathize with. This particular discussion began after author Gwen C. Katz tweeted:
“A male author is insisting that he is living proof that it's possible for a male author to write an authentic female protagonist.”
She then proceeded to present his cringeworthy, boob-heavy example, which only served to reinforce her point. Although it absolutely is possible for men to write realistic female narrators, this is definitely not a good example.
The tweet kicked off a challenge: “Describe yourself like a male author would.” People jumped on board with glee, writing brilliantly creative and funny offerings that are as eye-opening as they are entertaining.
Because while the thread is absolutely hilarious for its comedy portrayals, it also highlights the frustration that many women feel about the way they are viewed by men. Women are people first of all, and the overly sexualized lens that many guys view them through is both unrealistic and unwelcome. Male authors like Katz's unnamed example, who project their physically-focused ideals onto their female characters are deserving of this kind of mockery. That said, men need not be afraid to write from a female perspective. They just need to do it well!
Scroll down below to read some of our favorite examples from the thread, and let us know what you think in the comments!
This discussion began after author Gwen C. Katz tweet:
She then presented the cringeworthy example which only served to reinforce her point
The tweet kicked off a unique challenge
And many women jumped on board with glee
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"The author moved on quickly, thinking she would be an admirable opponent if he made her angry right now."
confidence can be the most important thing in the world, especially if you are going to conquer the world!
this. this sounds sadly true, like this is happening right now, somehow. somewhere.
They have knowledge. and in my opinion, even though somebody doesn't look young anymore they are still beautiful in their own way.
sounds 'bout right, something those (enter rude name) would say.
I'm really sorry but when you said she rolled her eyes out, I had a mental image of a woman literally removing her eyeballs and rolling them over a table to the horror of the terrible male author sitting opposite... 😂😂
This is ridiculous. Apart from the fact there are dozens of vacuous 'chick lit' books that are written exactly like that, it's tremendously sexist to paint all male authors with the same brush. If it were the reverse and men were lumping all female authors together, women wouldn't stop bleating on about that either.
Yeah, we could change the title of the challenge to "Describe yourself as the Male Literary Prodigy from Twitter would". Could do the same with a specific female author of bad chick lit and I think only few people would get offended. Maybe the author and their fanbase.
Actually this is a great idea, would be fun to read as well :) Nobody's saying women aren't judging men by looks either, incl.in writing
I feel like chick lit's bigger problem is naivety in describing the "bad boy" character, especially when they make him a narrator. Suddenly it turns out that an abuser is really a great person, just very tormented. It sets terrible expectations for women.
Also, the bad boy has to be the one that's great in bed, not the other, somewhat nicer male character (who's bound to appear as the alternative choice for the heroine).
I really don't see why this was downvoted, I truly believe laughing at chick lit would be fun
Yeah, see, they're not really saying that every male author is as bad as these examples, or even bad at all... it's just that there's so MUCH of the bad stuff, and it is SO common, that it's hard to not notice the very clear trend. Pointing it out is not meant to dismiss the authors who aren't doing it. It's meant to stop the ones who ARE doing it from continuing to do so. To stop and THINK. As a male writer, i have looked back at my own writing and recognized where a lot of my own acculturation lead me into the same types of writing cliches. It happens to people who even think of themselves as good men who don't objectify women. It's SO common and SO rampant in our culture that the men who wouldn't intentionally do it are apt to do it as a matter of habit and exposure to literature itself.
Ridiculous, indeed! It's perfectly fair that male authors have dominated the majority of publishing deals, book sales, funding for marketing, speaking gigs and tours, not to mention book store placement for decades, even when they write like this. There is nothing sexist or unbalanced to see here at all.
Yeah, you are right. I still haven't encountered a book from a male author, who writes in this style. Too much boob descriptions, eyes and so on. You can't deny however, that some women did show a talent in describing themselves in sarcastically funny, despite a bit sexist way. The one who started the trend of stereotyping male authors obviously hasn't read lots of books and isn't a very informed person, but at least, some of us had a good laugh with several of the descriptions and I thought the post was exactly about fun. Now, after we read this more or less pointless post, there's one more form of entertainment left: see what a shitty discussion would emerge here eventually.
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Wouldn't it be funny to discover, that the mentioned authors are female authors with male pseudonyms? ^^
I don't know if by saying this I'm mansplaining, but I've read plenty of good male and female writters write characters of the opposite gender, I did not know that people had a problem with this.