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But they also don't ask why she chose a male protagonist.

• munificent 10y ago
  Margaret 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.