Making a character in a book seem realistic and interesting is no easy task. It’s not down to just your skills as a writer, though. You actually have to know a bit about who you’re writing about. In other words—do your research. Unfortunately, some male writers out there seem to have major problems writing female characters and seem shy about asking their female friends for advice.
The ‘Men Write Women’ page on X (former Twitter) documents these scary and cringe-worthy examples of men writing about women without having any idea about them or their anatomy. The project was started back in 2019 when Meghan Vondriska launched her version of the ‘Men Writing Women’ Reddit community. Now, the ‘Men Write Women’ X page has over 69k followers, and there are over 2k fans who follow their Instagram page.
“Women just want to be written as human. That’s it. There isn't some wild scientific equation to writing women, and it isn't difficult. Write them as human, with complex feelings, not as body parts that happen to be put together into a feminine form,” Vondriska told Bored Panda.
Let’s take a look at these examples of how men write women and see what Vondriska has to say about this annoying depiction.
More info: MegVondriska.com
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This Is The Best One Yet
wow. so many weird misogynistic stereotypes here. Does this person also believe our wombs detach, fly about our bodies and make us crazy once a month?
We Don’t Get Real Pockets In Pants Because We Have Tiny Purses In Our Vaginas!!! (Stuart Woods, Desperate Measures)
This is horrifying. Has this man ever seen a vagina? I could not imagine jamming credit cards up it.
"3 And A Half Milliboobs Per Handful"
What Does it Mean When a Woman is Written by a Man?
At times, male authors depict female characters as sexualized, unrealistic beings who are mere accessories that meet the desires of these authors. Men portraying women in this manner is called the male gaze. The male gaze or a woman written by a man tends to focus on the body rather than the character itself. When women are objectified without giving them a voice in the story, it’s typically said that the woman is written by a man.
Yes, Men Would Be Amaaazing At Handling Pregnancy - Evolution Really Screwed This One Up. Bonus Points For “No Woman Gets Raped Unless She’s Looking For It.”
Oo. This writer does not like the look of pregnant women, so has decided that women must hate it - you know, because he hates it and they surely all want to appeal to him because he's so awesome.
As far as sagging boobs, people just take for granted that all men want women's boobs to look like they are teenagers. I remember I had a work buddy from India a couple of decades ago who was talking about a woman who came into a meeting once without a bra. She had sagging boobs. And he said he was very distracted seeing her boobs going "ting, ting, ting" back and forth. He liked them :-)
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I've never been pregnant. I have no desire for children. I don't have an ounce of maternal instinct. But I think pregnant bodies are amazing and beautiful. I guess I'm a weirdo.
No you're not a weirdo, because pregnant women *are* amazing and beautiful!
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And yet I'm sure there are women out there with Anne's opinion
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"Even after Rick explained" ---- more bonus points for a mansplain to start!
I feel like this idiot may also be a sitting member of Congress. https://time.com/3001785/todd-akin-legitimate-rape-msnbc-child-of-rape/
Woah. "... he said abortions wouldn’t be necessary for rape victims. “If it’s legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut the whole thing down,” "
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Yes, I can see how the author would be much better prepared to handle having a bulging stomach, sagging breasts, and a maternal urge.
Just when you think this guy's done. Boom! 'There's little good-looking about a pregnant woman.'
WTF?! Personally, I LOVE the way my body looks when I’m pregnant. Also, I would love to see a pregnant man (who has never previously experienced having a female body — no hate to trans men here), because I do NOT believe that cis men are “psychologically prepared” for pregnancy. That’s a laugh and a half.
Most men act like they die when they caught a cold. Those guys should handle a pregnancy? Dont make me laugh.
my mom says that if men could get pregnant, there'd be no more sex, and no more humans
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He's obviously not a Father - nothing in this world more beautiful than a pregnant woman - especially having your baby!! And, if men had babies - the wimps we are - Humanity would have been extinct thousands of years ago!!
Well thank goodness we don't have to deal with carrying around a saggy scr*t*m that looks like it was meant to be the pendulum of a clock. What a horrific sight!
So true, there is absolutely nowt pretty about human balls 😂
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So women who want to be raped will be and those that don’t..... won’t? Then how do they explain a child getting raped? They wanted it? How does a CHILD even know what rape is? At 5 years old I was NOT wanting to be raped.
Rick needs a lesson on the female of the species.... But I doubt he could handle the details. You know, psychologically... And... Shame on Anne!! Shame, shame, shame!!
This sounds more like he's writing to describe how the character views it not what his own views are about it. Same with the comment about the rape. At least I really hope so.
It really doesn't sound like it's character and not author - the character sounds more like a sock puppet than a shitty person as character.
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WOMEN ARE LESS PSYCHOLOGICALLY PREPARED FOR PREGNANCY THAN MEN???!!!! COME HERE LET ME SLAP THE STUPID OUT OF YOU!
Damn. That asshat really wants it, doesn't he? Might I point out the first paragraph?"Anne still held the theory that no woman gets raped or nearly raped unless she's looking for it." WTF IS THIS S**T!?!??!?!? I have a friend who WAS raped AND nearly raped again! And I CAN ASSURE YOU SHE WAS NOT LOOKING FOR IT!!!!!
The late comedian David Brenner once said, "Men, if you want to know what birth feels like, take your lower lip and pull it over your head..."
R U SAYING THAT WOMEN DONT LOOK GOOD WHEN PREGNANT!?!? IM ALWAYS *naturally beautiful* OR ELSE MY PHONE CAMERA WITH HALF A DOZEN MAKE UP APPS TO MAKE ME LOOK LESS LIKE A WALRUS. (SOMEONE ACTUALLY ASKED IF I HAD THOSE) AND ALSO SINCE WHEN ARE WOMEN, LESS PREPARED THAN A MALE WOULD HAVE BEEN? WE R LITERALLY CONSTRUCTED FOR CHILDREN (I DO NOT MEAN THAT IT IS OUR DUTY TO HAVE KIDS I MEAN OUR BODY BUILD OR WHATEVS) ALSO HOW WOULD A MALE GROW BREASTS AND STOP THEM FROM LOOKING “SAGGY”
Yes the character that the author is writing is someone that he wants you to despise because the character is thinking this
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Here's to an asshead. me ->( う-´)づ︻╦̵̵̿╤── \(˚☐˚”)/<- the author lol
Wow is the author still alive? Can we arrange a punch in where we all punch this man in shins? What a loser
Yes it’s despicable character in a story written by an author who wants you to despise this character
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The pregnancy part of this is ridiculous, but also the line above it... "no woman gets raped or nearly raped unless she's looking for it" W.T.F?????
Conclusions men come to out of their ingrained misogyny, of which they are probably only vaguely aware. How incredibly arrogant and superficial to assume that even women only gauge their value by their looks. I hope no woman ever gives her body to give this creep children.
Yep, that's exactly how you know the author is trash. Who would assume that?
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Amazingly, my own mother told me that I was dressed too provocatively at the time (a female friend and I were out bar hopping in Washington, DC in the dead of winter. How provocatively do YOU think I was dressed?) and must have 'put out victim vibes' after I was raped.
Internalized misogyny is unfortunately very, very real
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Men who rape know it is their fault and know a woman will STILL get blamed.
The only time in my life that I felt beautiful was when I was pregnant. I have not reason to think I appeared so to others.....but I felt that way.
Seriously? Take a good look at your penis. That's just about one of the UGLIEST things on the planet.
"WHiLe BEiNG LeSs PSyColoGIicALly thAn a maN WoULd hAVe BeeN." you sir can go print that statement out soak it in snake venom AND SHOVE IT!!
wow this is not sexist at all! mine did not sag when I was pregnant. and what a weird thing to say that males can be psychologically prepared for pregnancy while we would not be... Just because he hates the sight of a pregnant body does not mean that other males do, or that any female does - what many of us do not like is the changes that we have no say in. His poor wife! Many women claim that the woman has never looked more beautiful than when pregnant!
the definition of rape is unwanted sex so how is a woman looking for something she does not want....so stupid;
St Patrick was the first to drop this bombshell and was officially reprimanded by the Pope. And yet he was canonized. Now THAT'S a mystery.
I feel like I'm less psychologically able to read his BS without kicking him in the throat.
nope stopped reading at the first sentence, now I want to burn the page (or the whole book)
That is the point of having a really shitty character is letting you know that he’s a really shitty character
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f**k whoever wrote this becuse i wasn't looking for anything like that at the age of five. god damn f*****g incompant f**k face that's like trying to say peto is a sexuality.
raped means it's forced without consent, mostly referring to an adult forcing it on a minor without the ability to give consent. nobody WANTS to be raped.
The word "rape" has no connotations of age difference. That might just be in your first language.
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Considering all the 30+ year old males who have mommy bring them to the urgent care with a cold or flu... yeah. Men would do GREAT at pregnancy 🤦♀️
So if "Anne" says that's the way for other women to be raped, it must be OK because she's a woman? I can't believe this awful writing made its way in to a published book.
When i saw that line "Anne still held to the theory..." i thought, okay, maybe this one is misunderstood, it's the character's theory, does not necessarily represents the author's theory.... Then i saw the last line :v WTF....
To be fair, the full sentence is "Even after Rick explained that Ms. Hammond hadn't been dressed flashily at all, Anne still held to the theory that no woman gets raped unless they're looking for it." I know I'm going to get all kinds of hate for this, but please keep in mind that 1. I am not in support of this guy or anything he says 2. I am equally appalled by Ricks* thoughts 3. Even with proper context, this statement is... unsettling, at best 4. I'm not trying to be offensive or anything, I'm just putting a sentence into context. *Although it's highly unlikely, there is a slight chance that the author does not share Rick's opinions-as I said, HIGHLY unlikely, but still technically possible. I'm not saying this is true, I'm just trying to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Why? Why do you jump through all these hoops just to play devil's advocate when you could just not?
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Woman can look better pregnant because they can flaunt it and be proud of it so uh back off my guy
A large canon of porn suggests that many men find pregnant women extremely erotic...
Is the character supposed to be detestable? "Little good-looking about a pregnant woman..." Sheesh. Sure some don't like it, but no one? There was also a time where bulging stomachs were sought after, even specifically *because* it seemed to mean fertility. Less psychologically prepared for birth than a man? First ...the psychology of pregnancy involves hormones that will drive anyone crazy, because that is the cost of growing life. Also usually, not always but usually, women deal with emotions frequently, and often times facing and dealing with emotion makes you more prepared than those that ignore them, which is usually, not always but usually, the man.
I read a lot. I do not read Stephen King. My niece sent me 2 of his books. They feature a Texas Ranger. The Ranger appears to be stupid about most things and especially law enforcement. There is a female sheriff featured like a lot of detective stories, she needed to be rescued and the male was the hero. I could not read the second book. I read detective stories all the time. Favorite authors, Louise Penny, John Sanford and Robert B Parker, Jesse Stone series. They write women very well, but still err sometimes.
Well, the much revered Robert Heinlein had a female character say exactly the same thing (as the title of this post) in Stranger in a Strange Land, but nobody pulls him up on it. ¬_¬
I think pregnant women look beautiful. This "writer" stinks. ""Anne still held the theory that no woman gets raped or nearly raped unless she's looking for it". WOW.
Pregnant women can be sexy as heck. This writer has some serious body issues :/
Wow, this man has gone from misogyny 101 straight to a PhD in misogyny for utter pricks.
That last line is godawful. My wife is ready to drop any second now, and is so incredibly beautiful.
I agree with this I hated the way i looked when I was pregnant i felt bloated and totally unattractive. Honestly its wonderful to have a child but no one looks better pregnant
Kindly keep your personal and deep-seated body image issues in your own court. Do better.
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the writer isn't dissing women, his asinine character is. just like actors aren't necessarily like the characters they play, writers don't necessarily subscribe to the idiocy of their characters. It's fiction
I rather think a naked man with a big belly can be quite attractive - it's not all men's fault that this author is a complete bloody idiot!
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The point is that these are all written by men who think they know what women are thinking about and what we want. Many stories are written by people who bring out their own opinions into characters sometimes.
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Oh someone needs to tell this person men also get stretch marks and they are not ll from having kids. weightloss or gain does it too
Let's Not Forget This Gem Either
Just imagine the reverse: "every hair in my beard becoming a tiny penis"
Women Written by Men: What Does Vondriska Say?
“I’m an avid reader, but the straw that broke the camel’s back was a novel my boyfriend lent me, where the female character was described by her breasts, and the male character was described by his personality.”
“Working in advertising, I tend to be Very Online, so taking my anger to Twitter seemed like a natural parallel. I was familiar with the Men Writing Women subreddit, but created a Twitter account in order to craft a consistent narrative and to build a community that wasn’t hidden behind anonymity,” Vondriska revealed what inspired her to create ‘Men Write Women.’
Vondriska, from Wisconsin, devours 3 to 5 books each week. (Meanwhile, our piles of started-but-unfinished books keep on growing.) According to her, a lot of male writers who tend to be thought of as the “founders of the literary canon” are continuous offenders. “John Updike, for instance. But the greatest repeat offender is definitely Stephen King. His portrayal of his female characters is honestly offensive,” Vondriska said.
Ugly Women Without Good Personalities Should Kill Themselves [rivers Of London By Ben Aaronovitch]
This Made My Breasts Frown
That's Not How Any Of This Works
Oh dear, this guy just revealed himself to be a very very confused virgin.
Male Authors Writing About Women Actually Well
However, it isn't all doom and gloom in the literary world. There are male writers who can write women well, too. “Terry Pratchett is wonderful, and I’ve yet to see a submission from Michael Crichton,” Vondriska shared that she, like many of us, is a Pratchett fan. Vondriska also pointed out that, in her opinion, the best writers are well-read. So, she encouraged all of us to read more and (most importantly) read more widely.
“Pay attention to what you’re reading and who you’re reading. You have to make sure your bookshelf isn't made up of just men. Add in some spice—some female authors, some nonbinary authors, or authors of color. And lastly, just because you were assigned a book in high school doesn't mean it’s good!”
Unsurprisingly, The Book's Terrible Writing From A "Proclaimed" Writer Does Not End Here (The Wedding Plot, Jeffrey Eugenides)
Boobs are testicles. They don't "withdraw" because there is muscle and a rib cage underneath and they are just mounds of fat and milk producing tissue. I feel like so many people here did not pay attention in health class. How can they be so clueless about the female body?
Male Authors Writing Women Are Actually Just Horror Stories And Here's Why
Ah Yes, Exactly How I'd Describe Myself (The Diamond Age, Neal Stephenson)
What is the Female Gaze Theory?
The female gaze theory refers to the female point of view in the story that focuses on the realistic depiction of the characters rather than objectifying their bodies. Usually, when netizens say, “written by a woman,” they are talking about this realistic female gaze that gives depth to the character rather than their physical appearance.
I'm Sorry, Her Breasts Do What
She's Eleven And Scared But Let's Talk About Her Nipples
This Whole Book Has Both My Eyes And My Boobs Rolling
Be Horrified With The Rest Of Us
Men like Conde should not be surprised that sexy women love other women, and he really should try to help that male chauvinism.
Breasts Totally Get Scared
The Count Of Monte Cristo- 1884
Plz Put This On My Tombstone #submission (The Dogs, Scott Smith)
*me To My Friend* Excuse Me, May I Please Borrow Your Eyeballs?
She Was Flesh And Blood, Not The 2D Woman He Was Used To Objectifying On Television, And For That She Was All The More Special (A Time On Earth, Vihelm Moberg)
Literally No Woman Would Ever Do This (Misterioso, Arne Dahl)
In the first place this whole soaking thing sounds like a dishcloth, this guy obviously doesn't know how pads work. In the second place, pads stick to underwear, in my experience you don't just "fish them out", this guy obviously doesn't know how pads work. In the third place, of course the only possible rational reason why a woman would refuse sex is because she's on her period!, this guy is obviously an effing asshole.
Only Sluts Have Hairy Legs (The Things They Carried, Tim O'brien)
dry sounds like she just needs to use more lotion. dry skin is horribly itchy
Thank God For The Bikini Wax.
Wish I Had Pillowy Breasts! Taken From Ben Fountain’s Brief Encounters With Che Guevara
I'm more concerned by the fact he seems to routinely check out boys' butts and uses that as the benchmark of sexy.
The Rest Reads “Dad Is Looking Like He Made A Better Decision Every Year”. What?!?
This Is A Totally Anatomically Normal Thing For Breasts To Do #submission (We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, Philip Dick)
These male authors are making my breasts pulse with resentment. They're really pissed off.
#menwritingwomen No Wonder Some Of Them Think Our Breasts Stop Us From Doing Stuff If They Think We’re As Obsessed As They Are. We Can’t Get Away From Them. Oh Must Do This Important Thing But Wait!
Well this seems to reinforce every ugly stereotype of men being sex crazed horndogs
'the Shining', By Stephen King. Its Always Breasts
Note: this post originally had 78 images. It’s been shortened to the top 29 images based on user votes.
Female Characters Are More Than Just Their Bodies
We understand your anger. It’s impossible to read the thread without getting infuriated about this poor depiction of women. You can take out your anger about these male writers and express yourself in the comments. After all, women are so much more than just their bodies. Share this not just with your fellow feminists but with other friends and family, too. It’s high time we call out these unfair depictions, don’t you think so?
I am suddenly very aware that my breasts are complete underachievers. Does anyone know how I train them to do even half the things listed in this post? Most of the Boobs here seem to have the intelligence and sentience of the average 4 year old human child. I've just tried, but I can't even get mine to express mild disapproval. :-(
I'm beginning to think my breasts are just a couple of freeloaders, is there someway I can motivate them into doing something more than just hanging out and getting in the way?
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I am amazed at how many have a tenuous understanding at best of female anatomy and how they anthropomorphize breasts and give them more personality than their female characters.
The problem here is that women are nothing but sexual objects to these types of men.
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Challenge: describe yourselves in the style of these entries. I myself am tall, dark haired and willowy, with eyes like winter ice and breasts that are furious at the world around me.
No, go and describe men in the way these authors describe women. There will be so many confused and frowning penises!
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I was the US print buyer for an international glass company (think FAST) My boss's frat brother had started a printing company and wanted our business. Knowing I had no intention of switching companies (and that it as entirely my decision) , my boss set up a meet & greet, just for show. Now, back in the day - I was much thinner and pretty hot. Wearing the company V-neck sweater, I met with Ed. Even before we went into the conference room he was staring at my bust (which has always been a blessing & a curse). As I was introducing myself, he was just staring at my boobs. I asked him a few questions and he literally ANSWERED MY BOOBS. I'd had enough and bent my head down to meet his eyes and said, "They don't speak, Ed". He turned purple, my boss almost fell off his chair laughing & I just calmly left the room. No. He did not get our business.
Who the ever-loving f**k publishes this crap? HOW did *these* end up in production, on a shelf and then get bought?!
Everyone who intends to write a physical description needs to attend one autopsy, start to finish, for a person of each gender. You lose the mystique and the stupid pretty quick that way.
I went to the cadaver lab with my high school anatomy class. Plus I get extra bonus points because a student forgot to properly um... store his cadaver, so I now know we're all just a bunch of sentient beef jerky.
Load More Replies... What is with these men's obsession with female breasts? Among many other problematic stuff. And even little girls. Yuck!
I’m with you. Men really have no idea how to write a decent female character without falling for all these tropes listed imo
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How far authors go to give visual descriptions and feelings, but instead miss the point entirely and end up writing the most ridiculous things. But we shouldn't just mention the authors, as the books are always reviewed by editors and many others, and not a single person though about questioning these things...
I no longer remember which book exactly it was, but Haruki Murakami had a female character who was so poor that she had only one bra and she had to wash it every evening. Wash it every evening! Dude! I'll never forget that xD
I am certain some people do that. I was at a friends place when her son hollered "Mom, there are no ironed socks!" He was like 17 or 18 and she promptly ironed a pair of socks for him. He didn't know that you could wear socks that had not been ironed. My own teenage son did not know that anyone could/would iron socks and neither did I.
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These make me think of the My Dad Wrote A Porno podcast. This guy discovered his dad has been writing erotica for years and is genuinely confused how he was ever conceived! It’s comedy gold - very much NSFW and also NSF Driving, as you’ll laugh so much you’ll crash!
And shockingly... Rocky Flintstone is a better writer than some of these!
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I usually come to BP for the feel-goods. Today I'm feeling really angry. So today I'm going to focus on describing the protagonist in my novel in ways that won't make people want to claw their eyes and brains out.
The first example you use is not an invention of Min Jin Lee. Rather it is a very clever reference to long-held, oft told rumor that a particular champagne glass was molded from Marie Antionette's breast. If you've ever seen anything set in the early 1900's, they were probably drinking champagne or cocktails from one of those glasses. It's hysterical, but most likely untrue. Champagne-...f4cf5a.jpg 
I loved Stephen King as a teenager, and I still do. But re-reading him as an adult is pretty cringey. Every single female character is described anatomically.
Agreed. I can't re-read his old stuff and his new stuff is far too wordy. Looks like his son, the author Joe Hill, is a chip off the old block with the wordiness too.
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You know what? France is on lockdown again, l needed a good laugh, this trend overkilled it for me. Thank you so much for the laugh
They also think boobs are: (______😡______) (______😡_____)
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The comments on this post certainly improved the idiotic excerpts!
I have to wonder if there's an equally bad women writing men ... I mean really, why should it be so one sided?
There is some woman but some men think think that they are the dominant gender so usaly it’s men
Load More Replies... Why is it that I’m offended. I’m not like anything these idiots are writing about. I am in middle/high school and my breasts started developing in 3rd grade. Yet I seem to be offended. Most likely because I just kinda feel like men don’t pay attention to us and just our body. Like they see us as objects. I took a genius class. It was about the feminine and male genius and it wad incredibly enlightening. Women are supposed to protect the man’s heart and men are supposed to protect the woman. You should take one of those classes. It’s actually really helpful.
This makes my breasts laugh with toothy smiles, the left slightly more expressive than the other as my cleavage juts out in disgust. They talk amongst themselves in my bra, wondering if we should educate men. My right insists that the men of the world become competent, while the left argues that we wouldn't have as much reason to laugh at them. With which of my intelligent breasts do you agree?
I hate how women are stereotyped like this and are a sexual object for men to observe.
Reading through this post was just... PAINFULLY hilarious
Even as a man I cringed at the utter ridiculous paragraphs,who writes such books??
FYI, Michael Crichton studied to be a medical doctor but never actually practiced, just leapt into writing as a career. Which probably explains why he was able to get biological details about women so perfectly, and why I really wish he were still around to publish more novels. RIP.
This is as hilarious as it is horrific. We need the same thread for female authors talking about men. Romance novels are just as f'n ludicrous XD
I read the first 4 or 5. And as a female, I am just so offended. Are the male writers unmarried, virgins that they really know so little about women. And as I noted above, where are the proof readers? They must also be in the same category.!!
what the actual hell is wrong with men? why do they even WRITE this into their books?
James Patterson's "Murder Club" reads like he's never known any women in his life. Um, women who have been friends for over 20 years DO NOT have such stilted and formal conversations. And even though my best friend prefers to be called "Patricia", when we're alone she's "Pats".
I had to ask myself how did some of these get past the publishers? Getting past that some of these may be self-published - these examples seem to show males in the publishing/editing profession(s) also barely know anything about women...
Why on earth are theses thing published or not edited out. How I understand why Men know NOTHING about women....they only listen to over men
Many years ago when I was a pre-teen, I snuck away with a couple of my mom’s dirty novels. One described a woman having her period as the blood pouring down her legs and having to soak it all up with several of her boyfriend’s t-shirts. Even at my young age I knew that was a bit much, unless the author planned on her visiting the emergency room for hemorrhaging.
Guys, please write this down: breasts are not sentient in any way. They do not react to events or emotions. They grow the way they grow and then they stay that way. They might grow a little more during pregnancy and sag a little while ageing, but otherwise, they do nothing, I repeat, nothing. Also, nipples do not get hard when the woman is sexually aroused like your penis does.
Males support feminists, you know (not the ones that hate on men like the idiots in the comments, the ones that preach equality to males and females). I feel like this article wont start good feminism, it will start bad feminism. Oh, wait, it already has..
My favorite thing like this is a movie, not a book. Blade Runner 2049. Must have been written by 10-year-old boys who think a robot could be built that accidentally had the ability to give birth. Like, there is nothing special inside women that makes this happen. Meanwhile, the outsides of women's bodies are everywhere in 50-foot-high holograms.
She was tall, curvy, with wide, sumptuous thighs and tiny ankles. Her long, flowing hair, the color of a summer day, cascaded over her breasts. She was dandelion fluff, a raw sexual force, leaving nothing behind but the faint taste of chocolate on your lips. And damn, was she good with a knife. As I looked up at her, the knife in my chest, she flipped me off as only the most beautiful of women could.
I think in some cases, the authors are trying to make their male characters come off as sexist, breast-obsessed, creepy, etc. "Breasts walked by ... he didn't even look at her face." Don't hate the writers; hate the men they describe.
Sometimes, I think the best thing that could happen to the human race would be some kind of additive to the water that would drop the male sex drive by about 9/10. Then, maybe most of them could finally relate to women as something other than a pair of legs, a pair of tits, or a hole they want to stuff something into.
i wish my breasts would be more like theirs and stop being breasts that don't move :-(
😤😑By the Angel, thank Raziel THATS over. A couple of them, I had to go back and just stare at them for a little while to figure out what the HELL is going on. But most of them, I just stared off into the distance trying to figure out how they are so stupid! I hope these men don't describe real women like that. Or HAVE wives for that matter! I would NOT want to be married to an idiot like that! Hmph....sorry for my outburst. I am very passionate on writing and will try to not write at all like them. Dear Raziel they need help🥲
Im 12 and a boy and I know more about women than all of these people combined
I’m assuming in most of these books are the product of incels who wrote this while living in their mom’s basement
I am just totally stunned by the fact that no one have reacted before this sh-t went to print!!! Surely there must have been a proofreader, a publisher, a FRIEND, for haven sake, that could have said "Hey mate, I really don´t think it´s such good idea to write that that way..."
#19 is 9 perfect strangers by Liane Moriarty. She’s a woman, not sure why her book was included in this list.
Good god I write and I can a describe a woman's body but these blokes have they got it so wrong I am so glad we do not fit their idea of women with BREASTS. I am never aware of my breasts unless showering or dressing and getting them to sit just right in my bra.
F**k off lyone they are just trying to say that they are annoyed
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seriously though looking at book writing for proof or disproof or an understanding of the female body, isnt is as stupid as looking at a scifi film for an understanding of the working of quantum mechanics.
Lots of people. That's why Stephen King is an extremely rich and successful author maybe?
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Damn, these men must be lonely enough that they feel the need to say this
I guess that that is not "correct" but I need to say that too many women are not more intelligent. It is a tragedy that most of humans are conditioned so poorly.
Apart from the few named examples, most of these are crappy slash fic, self published. Just because you can get a book printed for you, doesn't make you an author
If you wanted to make a point, you could have at least used examples that didn't completely miss it. Most of them aren't even on topic, the few ones that are are all clearly not the authors thoughts, so what's the point of this article?
The writer needs to educate herself. “The vaginal wall is, in fact, the clitoris. If you lift the skin off the vagina on the side walls, you get the bulbs of the clitoris — triangular, crescental masses of erectile tissue,” Dr. O’Connell explained in an interview with the BBC in 2006. The clitoris has three major components: the glans clitoris, which is the only visible part of the organ, accounting for “a fifth or less” of the entire structurethe two crura, which extend, like brackets, down from the glans clitoris and deep into the tissue of the vulva, on either sidethe two bulbs of the vestibule, which extend either side of the vaginal orifice (not all researchers agree that the vestibular bulbs have a relation to the clitoris, however; researchers Vincenzo and Giulia Puppo, for instance, argue that the clitoris consists “of the glans, body, and crura” only) In its entirety, the clitoris may reach as many as 7 centimeters in length, if not longer, and the glans makes up about 4c
I could understand a lot of these comments when we're talking about male authors attempting to write from a woman's perspective, just like female authors completely failing while trying to write from a male's perspective... But most of these are the perspective of characters that are flawed or downright warped as part of the plotline... And then there's the complaints of "The Count of Monte Cristo" referring to 36 as "old." The book was published in 1844 when almost every woman was married by the age of 25. 36 would have been considered old for a woman to be unmarried.
It’s like no one has heard of metaphor or “the characters point of view”.
I’m sure a lot of these examples are supposed to be funny, or that in context the CHARACTER is supposed to be gross rather than the author.
To be fair (and at the risk of incurring the wrath of the BP downvote trolls), most female authors don't do a much better job of writing male characters. They tend to focus more on alleged male personality traits than anatomy, but they're often just as clueless as the guys who apparently think breasts are sentient beings. ;-)
Good point, but it’s less of a problem then young girls and women alike being oversexualized.
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These writers need to be named and shamed. Laugh in their faces and tell them what lousy writers they are.
Yeah, Stephen King's awful isn't he? Hope that guy never makes it big! 😂
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I always have to chuckle reading about articles that upset women so much for the way they are viewed by many ... I mean guys aren't popping ping-pong balls out of their privates for tips, or waving their junk around in hope that someone will buy them a drink ... ladies, just remember: your own kind most often give you all a bad rep for you actions, activities and just the simple things women take for granted (and NO, I am NOT saying ALL, but definitely a good portion of the female gender) ... so just think on this for a bit before getting your panties in such a bunch over so little ~ 'much ado about nothing'
The Firm by John Grisham: “She was beautiful, much more so than when they were married. At twenty-four she looked her age, but the years were becoming very generous.” She’s practically decrepit!
No. Most of these are clearly just written by men with weird ideas about women's bodies. The obsession with breasts is just too weird.
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Most of these were still written by men who make horrible and misogynist depictions of women. And the romance ones by women, at least they still humanize the men. The ones about women never are.
Load More Replies... I am suddenly very aware that my breasts are complete underachievers. Does anyone know how I train them to do even half the things listed in this post? Most of the Boobs here seem to have the intelligence and sentience of the average 4 year old human child. I've just tried, but I can't even get mine to express mild disapproval. :-(
I'm beginning to think my breasts are just a couple of freeloaders, is there someway I can motivate them into doing something more than just hanging out and getting in the way?
Load More Replies... I am amazed at how many have a tenuous understanding at best of female anatomy and how they anthropomorphize breasts and give them more personality than their female characters.
The problem here is that women are nothing but sexual objects to these types of men.
Load More Replies... Challenge: describe yourselves in the style of these entries. I myself am tall, dark haired and willowy, with eyes like winter ice and breasts that are furious at the world around me.
No, go and describe men in the way these authors describe women. There will be so many confused and frowning penises!
Load More Replies... I was the US print buyer for an international glass company (think FAST) My boss's frat brother had started a printing company and wanted our business. Knowing I had no intention of switching companies (and that it as entirely my decision) , my boss set up a meet & greet, just for show. Now, back in the day - I was much thinner and pretty hot. Wearing the company V-neck sweater, I met with Ed. Even before we went into the conference room he was staring at my bust (which has always been a blessing & a curse). As I was introducing myself, he was just staring at my boobs. I asked him a few questions and he literally ANSWERED MY BOOBS. I'd had enough and bent my head down to meet his eyes and said, "They don't speak, Ed". He turned purple, my boss almost fell off his chair laughing & I just calmly left the room. No. He did not get our business.
Who the ever-loving f**k publishes this crap? HOW did *these* end up in production, on a shelf and then get bought?!
Everyone who intends to write a physical description needs to attend one autopsy, start to finish, for a person of each gender. You lose the mystique and the stupid pretty quick that way.
I went to the cadaver lab with my high school anatomy class. Plus I get extra bonus points because a student forgot to properly um... store his cadaver, so I now know we're all just a bunch of sentient beef jerky.
Load More Replies... What is with these men's obsession with female breasts? Among many other problematic stuff. And even little girls. Yuck!
I’m with you. Men really have no idea how to write a decent female character without falling for all these tropes listed imo
Load More Replies... How far authors go to give visual descriptions and feelings, but instead miss the point entirely and end up writing the most ridiculous things. But we shouldn't just mention the authors, as the books are always reviewed by editors and many others, and not a single person though about questioning these things...
I no longer remember which book exactly it was, but Haruki Murakami had a female character who was so poor that she had only one bra and she had to wash it every evening. Wash it every evening! Dude! I'll never forget that xD
I am certain some people do that. I was at a friends place when her son hollered "Mom, there are no ironed socks!" He was like 17 or 18 and she promptly ironed a pair of socks for him. He didn't know that you could wear socks that had not been ironed. My own teenage son did not know that anyone could/would iron socks and neither did I.
Load More Replies... These make me think of the My Dad Wrote A Porno podcast. This guy discovered his dad has been writing erotica for years and is genuinely confused how he was ever conceived! It’s comedy gold - very much NSFW and also NSF Driving, as you’ll laugh so much you’ll crash!
And shockingly... Rocky Flintstone is a better writer than some of these!
Load More Replies... I usually come to BP for the feel-goods. Today I'm feeling really angry. So today I'm going to focus on describing the protagonist in my novel in ways that won't make people want to claw their eyes and brains out.
The first example you use is not an invention of Min Jin Lee. Rather it is a very clever reference to long-held, oft told rumor that a particular champagne glass was molded from Marie Antionette's breast. If you've ever seen anything set in the early 1900's, they were probably drinking champagne or cocktails from one of those glasses. It's hysterical, but most likely untrue. Champagne-...f4cf5a.jpg
I loved Stephen King as a teenager, and I still do. But re-reading him as an adult is pretty cringey. Every single female character is described anatomically.
Agreed. I can't re-read his old stuff and his new stuff is far too wordy. Looks like his son, the author Joe Hill, is a chip off the old block with the wordiness too.
Load More Replies... You know what? France is on lockdown again, l needed a good laugh, this trend overkilled it for me. Thank you so much for the laugh
They also think boobs are: (______😡______) (______😡_____)
Load More Replies... The comments on this post certainly improved the idiotic excerpts!
I have to wonder if there's an equally bad women writing men ... I mean really, why should it be so one sided?
There is some woman but some men think think that they are the dominant gender so usaly it’s men
Load More Replies... Why is it that I’m offended. I’m not like anything these idiots are writing about. I am in middle/high school and my breasts started developing in 3rd grade. Yet I seem to be offended. Most likely because I just kinda feel like men don’t pay attention to us and just our body. Like they see us as objects. I took a genius class. It was about the feminine and male genius and it wad incredibly enlightening. Women are supposed to protect the man’s heart and men are supposed to protect the woman. You should take one of those classes. It’s actually really helpful.
This makes my breasts laugh with toothy smiles, the left slightly more expressive than the other as my cleavage juts out in disgust. They talk amongst themselves in my bra, wondering if we should educate men. My right insists that the men of the world become competent, while the left argues that we wouldn't have as much reason to laugh at them. With which of my intelligent breasts do you agree?
I hate how women are stereotyped like this and are a sexual object for men to observe.
Reading through this post was just... PAINFULLY hilarious
Even as a man I cringed at the utter ridiculous paragraphs,who writes such books??
FYI, Michael Crichton studied to be a medical doctor but never actually practiced, just leapt into writing as a career. Which probably explains why he was able to get biological details about women so perfectly, and why I really wish he were still around to publish more novels. RIP.
This is as hilarious as it is horrific. We need the same thread for female authors talking about men. Romance novels are just as f'n ludicrous XD
I read the first 4 or 5. And as a female, I am just so offended. Are the male writers unmarried, virgins that they really know so little about women. And as I noted above, where are the proof readers? They must also be in the same category.!!
what the actual hell is wrong with men? why do they even WRITE this into their books?
James Patterson's "Murder Club" reads like he's never known any women in his life. Um, women who have been friends for over 20 years DO NOT have such stilted and formal conversations. And even though my best friend prefers to be called "Patricia", when we're alone she's "Pats".
I had to ask myself how did some of these get past the publishers? Getting past that some of these may be self-published - these examples seem to show males in the publishing/editing profession(s) also barely know anything about women...
Why on earth are theses thing published or not edited out. How I understand why Men know NOTHING about women....they only listen to over men
Many years ago when I was a pre-teen, I snuck away with a couple of my mom’s dirty novels. One described a woman having her period as the blood pouring down her legs and having to soak it all up with several of her boyfriend’s t-shirts. Even at my young age I knew that was a bit much, unless the author planned on her visiting the emergency room for hemorrhaging.
Guys, please write this down: breasts are not sentient in any way. They do not react to events or emotions. They grow the way they grow and then they stay that way. They might grow a little more during pregnancy and sag a little while ageing, but otherwise, they do nothing, I repeat, nothing. Also, nipples do not get hard when the woman is sexually aroused like your penis does.
Males support feminists, you know (not the ones that hate on men like the idiots in the comments, the ones that preach equality to males and females). I feel like this article wont start good feminism, it will start bad feminism. Oh, wait, it already has..
My favorite thing like this is a movie, not a book. Blade Runner 2049. Must have been written by 10-year-old boys who think a robot could be built that accidentally had the ability to give birth. Like, there is nothing special inside women that makes this happen. Meanwhile, the outsides of women's bodies are everywhere in 50-foot-high holograms.
She was tall, curvy, with wide, sumptuous thighs and tiny ankles. Her long, flowing hair, the color of a summer day, cascaded over her breasts. She was dandelion fluff, a raw sexual force, leaving nothing behind but the faint taste of chocolate on your lips. And damn, was she good with a knife. As I looked up at her, the knife in my chest, she flipped me off as only the most beautiful of women could.
I think in some cases, the authors are trying to make their male characters come off as sexist, breast-obsessed, creepy, etc. "Breasts walked by ... he didn't even look at her face." Don't hate the writers; hate the men they describe.
Sometimes, I think the best thing that could happen to the human race would be some kind of additive to the water that would drop the male sex drive by about 9/10. Then, maybe most of them could finally relate to women as something other than a pair of legs, a pair of tits, or a hole they want to stuff something into.
i wish my breasts would be more like theirs and stop being breasts that don't move :-(
😤😑By the Angel, thank Raziel THATS over. A couple of them, I had to go back and just stare at them for a little while to figure out what the HELL is going on. But most of them, I just stared off into the distance trying to figure out how they are so stupid! I hope these men don't describe real women like that. Or HAVE wives for that matter! I would NOT want to be married to an idiot like that! Hmph....sorry for my outburst. I am very passionate on writing and will try to not write at all like them. Dear Raziel they need help🥲
Im 12 and a boy and I know more about women than all of these people combined
I’m assuming in most of these books are the product of incels who wrote this while living in their mom’s basement
I am just totally stunned by the fact that no one have reacted before this sh-t went to print!!! Surely there must have been a proofreader, a publisher, a FRIEND, for haven sake, that could have said "Hey mate, I really don´t think it´s such good idea to write that that way..."
#19 is 9 perfect strangers by Liane Moriarty. She’s a woman, not sure why her book was included in this list.
Good god I write and I can a describe a woman's body but these blokes have they got it so wrong I am so glad we do not fit their idea of women with BREASTS. I am never aware of my breasts unless showering or dressing and getting them to sit just right in my bra.
F**k off lyone they are just trying to say that they are annoyed
Load More Replies... seriously though looking at book writing for proof or disproof or an understanding of the female body, isnt is as stupid as looking at a scifi film for an understanding of the working of quantum mechanics.
Lots of people. That's why Stephen King is an extremely rich and successful author maybe?
Load More Replies... Damn, these men must be lonely enough that they feel the need to say this
I guess that that is not "correct" but I need to say that too many women are not more intelligent. It is a tragedy that most of humans are conditioned so poorly.
Apart from the few named examples, most of these are crappy slash fic, self published. Just because you can get a book printed for you, doesn't make you an author
If you wanted to make a point, you could have at least used examples that didn't completely miss it. Most of them aren't even on topic, the few ones that are are all clearly not the authors thoughts, so what's the point of this article?
The writer needs to educate herself. “The vaginal wall is, in fact, the clitoris. If you lift the skin off the vagina on the side walls, you get the bulbs of the clitoris — triangular, crescental masses of erectile tissue,” Dr. O’Connell explained in an interview with the BBC in 2006. The clitoris has three major components: the glans clitoris, which is the only visible part of the organ, accounting for “a fifth or less” of the entire structurethe two crura, which extend, like brackets, down from the glans clitoris and deep into the tissue of the vulva, on either sidethe two bulbs of the vestibule, which extend either side of the vaginal orifice (not all researchers agree that the vestibular bulbs have a relation to the clitoris, however; researchers Vincenzo and Giulia Puppo, for instance, argue that the clitoris consists “of the glans, body, and crura” only) In its entirety, the clitoris may reach as many as 7 centimeters in length, if not longer, and the glans makes up about 4c
I could understand a lot of these comments when we're talking about male authors attempting to write from a woman's perspective, just like female authors completely failing while trying to write from a male's perspective... But most of these are the perspective of characters that are flawed or downright warped as part of the plotline... And then there's the complaints of "The Count of Monte Cristo" referring to 36 as "old." The book was published in 1844 when almost every woman was married by the age of 25. 36 would have been considered old for a woman to be unmarried.
It’s like no one has heard of metaphor or “the characters point of view”.
I’m sure a lot of these examples are supposed to be funny, or that in context the CHARACTER is supposed to be gross rather than the author.
To be fair (and at the risk of incurring the wrath of the BP downvote trolls), most female authors don't do a much better job of writing male characters. They tend to focus more on alleged male personality traits than anatomy, but they're often just as clueless as the guys who apparently think breasts are sentient beings. ;-)
Good point, but it’s less of a problem then young girls and women alike being oversexualized.
Load More Replies... These writers need to be named and shamed. Laugh in their faces and tell them what lousy writers they are.
Yeah, Stephen King's awful isn't he? Hope that guy never makes it big! 😂
Load More Replies... I always have to chuckle reading about articles that upset women so much for the way they are viewed by many ... I mean guys aren't popping ping-pong balls out of their privates for tips, or waving their junk around in hope that someone will buy them a drink ... ladies, just remember: your own kind most often give you all a bad rep for you actions, activities and just the simple things women take for granted (and NO, I am NOT saying ALL, but definitely a good portion of the female gender) ... so just think on this for a bit before getting your panties in such a bunch over so little ~ 'much ado about nothing'
The Firm by John Grisham: “She was beautiful, much more so than when they were married. At twenty-four she looked her age, but the years were becoming very generous.” She’s practically decrepit!
No. Most of these are clearly just written by men with weird ideas about women's bodies. The obsession with breasts is just too weird.
Load More Replies... Most of these were still written by men who make horrible and misogynist depictions of women. And the romance ones by women, at least they still humanize the men. The ones about women never are.
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