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The flip side is though if he was writing about a man no on would ask the question, which is the issue. Choosing a male protagonist is default, choosing to wri
by BEEdwards 10y ago
The flip side is though if he was writing about a man no on would ask the question, which is the issue.
Choosing a male protagonist is default, choosing to write about a women though is strange and needs to be questioned.
- talmand 10y agoOn the flip side of that, would anybody get upset if an author was asked "why a male character"? What if the author was female? The whole thinking behind that kind of complaint within the context of the question with no reason is stupid. I don't see the interviewer "questioning" the author of the choice of a female lead. People are just making too much out of innocent questions that may have interesting answers.
- munificent 10y ago> Choosing a male protagonist is default Choosing a protagonist whose gender (and race, etc.) is the same as the author's is the default. I don't think anyone asks Margaret Atwood why she chooses a female protagonist.
- dazmax 10y agoBut they also don't ask why she chose a male protagonist.
- munificent 10y agoMargaret Atwood may not be the best example because she so rarely chooses male protagonists, but the gender of the author and how it relates to their characters (and readers) comes up all the time. It is, for example, why Rowling published Harry Potter as "JK" and not "Joanne"—she didn't want her own gender to affect how readers perceived her book. A large number of female authors have done this over the years. There does seem to be some asymmetry where male authors struggle to write female characters well and are questioned about it more. I'm not sure where the imbalance comes from.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- jacalata 10y agoI don't think that's true, although that's gut feeling and not based on data. Do you have any data on that?