McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Hero vs. Heroine
Snowleopard:
--- Quote from: the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh on January 21, 2011, 09:21:39 PM ---So, precisely what constitutes a guy in a girl suit ?
I hate, with a passion, stories that assume that some small subculture-specific set of gender roles are universals.
I picked a female POV for the current space-opera project because it felt easier to get in the ways that setting really is gender-egalitarian; a male character thinking so risks failing as being blind to ways in which it's not.
--- End quote ---
Hey, Neuro, good to see you back. A guy in a girl suit is some writer basically taking a male character and putting a female skin on it. The character acts like a male, thinks like a male, has the same strengths as a male, even is gross like some males but it's supposed to be female. You don't find so many of them now but in the past you'd run across them more. Put that character up against a true female character and you can see the difference immediately.
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: Snowleopard on January 22, 2011, 12:46:06 AM ---Hey, Neuro, good to see you back. A guy in a girl suit is some writer basically taking a male character and putting a female skin on it. The character acts like a male, thinks like a male, has the same strengths as a male,
--- End quote ---
I thought you meant something like that, I am just at a loss as to what counts as acting or thinking like a male in this context.
Snowleopard:
Okay, let me see if I can clarify. Usually the guy in a girl suit is done with female warriors.
A GiGS female warrior would charge blindly at a foe way bigger than she was and, because she's the heroine, manage to defeat said warrior without getting her ass kicked. A true female warrior would be way more wary of a bigger foe because she knows she can't take him on in brute strength - she has to use her head and any other resources.
A good one, if you saw the Conan movie with Red Sonja in it - when she, Conan, and his buddy are about the rob some tower.
She looks at the boys and says "Do you know what horrors lurk above?" When the boys basically signal no.
RS - "Then you go first!" And they do.
It's a mind set difference. It can be a bit stereotyped, but there is a difference in how men and women act and behave in certain circumstances. Look at Murphy, she's been trained in martial arts but she still knows to be wary of a bigger foe. Where as Kincaid is pretty much capable of running down a foe his size or bigger. (Discounting supernatural abilities)
LizW65:
I'm female and have been told I think like a man--most likely because I'm low-maintenance, take people at face value, and don't get all offended by bodily functions--but I have to say, I don't tend to think of those traits as specifically male, or atypical of women in general.
There are a few practical things that need to be kept in mind when writing about the sexes, such as differences in plumbing, upper body strength, dress(possibly), and so on, but I think the most important thing is to focus on the character's voice and what (s)he wants and is trying to accomplish in the story, rather than getting hung up on gender roles.
Nickeris86:
Its also good to think about the type of society that the characters come from. Sparta trained both its men and women to fight and while the men were considered superior in a lot of ways but they still acknowledged the strengths that women posses. However in the opposite cultural spectrum Amazons were essentially men with a breast (traditionally Amazons cut off one of their breasts to be able to shoot a bow better) and their men were complete wusses.
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