McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Hero vs. Heroine
jeno:
So what counts as an acceptable reason?
Lord Rae:
This would be a good one...
Or at least it looks like a well thought out reason for someone female and small being badass.
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: Snowleopard on January 27, 2011, 06:10:17 PM ---No, being polite and civilized is not female-specific. And as I said - again - if there's no specific reason for a female to be crude - it's lazy writing on the part of the author.
--- End quote ---
Are you counting "this particular character happens to be both crude and female because that's how their personality is" as plausible reason here ?
meskarune:
--- Quote from: The Neuromancer on January 03, 2011, 10:49:28 PM ---Does it make much of a difference? I figured that if it is a good story then the characters gender doesn't matter much but I have heard that most people prefer female characters.
What are your thoughts on this?
Btw, I am talking about the supernatural sci-fi genre.
--- End quote ---
Getting back on topic.....
I would have to say that gender has a pretty big effect on character motivation and choice of action.
Example:
Male fighter protagonist gets knocked out, and is locked up in a room with his hands tied togehter. The man will evaluate where he is, and begin trying to escape.
Female fighter protagonist gets knocked out and is locked up in a room with her hands tied together. The FIRST thing that pops into her head is "holy crap someone could rape me" This particular situation for a woman is more emotionally intense and the need to espace is higher than it would be for a male character. I am NOT saying that all bad guys will inherently rape women, I'm just saying that women will always have this fear when in a situation like this. When tied up and unable to get free, a woman will not make snide remarks or do anything to further increase her danger or helplessness.
Another example.
women in real life often have to be much better at something to get the same respect that a man gets who is less skilled, especially in male dominated fields. This may have the effect of women being "bitchy" or even assuming an overly masculine persona in order to fit in and gain more respect. On top of that, the way a woman dresses effects how people will treat her.
Real world examples:
at my prom 3 guys were talking about aerodynamics and couldn't understand a concept. I walked over (and being incredibly nerdy) explained and expanded upon the conversation. They stared at me, and then laughed. While one of them said, "I can't take you seriously when you're dressed up like that" While in a t-shirt and jeans, my thouhts were valid, but putting on a dress took away any intellectual equality I had with my peers, as all they saw was a girl in a dress.
In college I worked in a unix lab. I had wired up all the compuers, set up the software and periferals, and my job after that was to simply be lab monitor and help people who needed help. I cannot tell you how frustraiting it was dealing with guys who didn't think I knew what I was talking about. They would try to "test" me with questions, argue with everything I said or ask to talk to my boss, who was male, and who would tell them the EXACT thing I had just told them. Then there were the guys would make passes at me or make general comments like, "chicks who program are hot"... But the WORST were when a guy would come up to me and ask me to help them with GUI asthetics because "girls are good at that"
I had to work MUCH harder than my male counter parts to get respect and notice at my job, and ended up using either humor or dry remarks to get through the day. (I will say that there were also guys who took my position at face value and treated me like they would a male lab monitor, so it wasn't ALL the guys in the lab who were being rediculous. I greatly appreciated being treated equally. BUT the fact that there were so many guys treating me differently was annoying at best)
In any case, I think women are more cautious (from a saftey stand point, they have to be, and it IS part of our culture) Also in real life, women are victims of violence more than men, by virtue that violent people will go after someone they PERCIEVE is smaller or more helpless (probably why most mooks are big guys, a smaller guy is not gonna attack the hero headon with confidence)
Another thing to consider is sex. (the act, not male/female) Sex is riskier for women than men. Women can get pregnant, and unlike men, they will be forced to deal with that consequence directly. Women can get hurt during sex far easier than men (again not saying this is the man's fault or that it even happens on purpose. An incompetant lover can be just as dangerous as one with a weird fetish) Women are in a more vulnerable position with sex, etc. Women will be more discerning with who they will sleep with, even promiscuous women, and they will take into account a guy's personality and behavior along with his looks.
Even when women KNOW they are smarter or a better fighter, they are not just fighting against the bad guy's idea about how women are, they also have the reader, and their own doubts and fears to deal with. Women will react more strongly to certain situations than men will by virtue of their gender.
I think that gender is important in how you write a character. In this post I just mentioned the effects on female characters, but you can certainly do the same with males.
Aludra:
--- Quote from: meskarune on February 23, 2011, 08:54:03 AM ---Getting back on topic.....
I would have to say that gender has a pretty big effect on character motivation and choice of action.
Example:
Male fighter protagonist gets knocked out, and is locked up in a room with his hands tied togehter. The man will evaluate where he is, and begin trying to escape.
Female fighter protagonist gets knocked out and is locked up in a room with her hands tied together. The FIRST thing that pops into her head is "holy crap someone could rape me" This particular situation for a woman is more emotionally intense and the need to espace is higher than it would be for a male character. I am NOT saying that all bad guys will inherently rape women, I'm just saying that women will always have this fear when in a situation like this. When tied up and unable to get free, a woman will not make snide remarks or do anything to further increase her danger or helplessness.
Another example.
women in real life often have to be much better at something to get the same respect that a man gets who is less skilled, especially in male dominated fields. This may have the effect of women being "bitchy" or even assuming an overly masculine persona in order to fit in and gain more respect. On top of that, the way a woman dresses effects how people will treat her.
Real world examples:
at my prom 3 guys were talking about aerodynamics and couldn't understand a concept. I walked over (and being incredibly nerdy) explained and expanded upon the conversation. They stared at me, and then laughed. While one of them said, "I can't take you seriously when you're dressed up like that" While in a t-shirt and jeans, my thouhts were valid, but putting on a dress took away any intellectual equality I had with my peers, as all they saw was a girl in a dress.
In college I worked in a unix lab. I had wired up all the compuers, set up the software and periferals, and my job after that was to simply be lab monitor and help people who needed help. I cannot tell you how frustraiting it was dealing with guys who didn't think I knew what I was talking about. They would try to "test" me with questions, argue with everything I said or ask to talk to my boss, who was male, and who would tell them the EXACT thing I had just told them. Then there were the guys would make passes at me or make general comments like, "chicks who program are hot"... But the WORST were when a guy would come up to me and ask me to help them with GUI asthetics because "girls are good at that"
I had to work MUCH harder than my male counter parts to get respect and notice at my job, and ended up using either humor or dry remarks to get through the day. (I will say that there were also guys who took my position at face value and treated me like they would a male lab monitor, so it wasn't ALL the guys in the lab who were being rediculous. I greatly appreciated being treated equally. BUT the fact that there were so many guys treating me differently was annoying at best)
In any case, I think women are more cautious (from a saftey stand point, they have to be, and it IS part of our culture) Also in real life, women are victims of violence more than men, by virtue that violent people will go after someone they PERCIEVE is smaller or more helpless (probably why most mooks are big guys, a smaller guy is not gonna attack the hero headon with confidence)
Another thing to consider is sex. (the act, not male/female) Sex is riskier for women than men. Women can get pregnant, and unlike men, they will be forced to deal with that consequence directly. Women can get hurt during sex far easier than men (again not saying this is the man's fault or that it even happens on purpose. An incompetant lover can be just as dangerous as one with a weird fetish) Women are in a more vulnerable position with sex, etc. Women will be more discerning with who they will sleep with, even promiscuous women, and they will take into account a guy's personality and behavior along with his looks.
Even when women KNOW they are smarter or a better fighter, they are not just fighting against the bad guy's idea about how women are, they also have the reader, and their own doubts and fears to deal with. Women will react more strongly to certain situations than men will by virtue of their gender.
I think that gender is important in how you write a character. In this post I just mentioned the effects on female characters, but you can certainly do the same with males.
--- End quote ---
This is all true in real life, but in a fictional story, if the setting implies that women /aren't/ necessarily the weaker sex (due to political traditions or some equalizer like magic) then I don't think that a heroine is necessarily inclined to be more cautious or afraid of rape. Also, some women are naturally very atheltic and muscular, (I'm thinking of some of the athletes I knew in HS), and I don't think they went around with a higher sense of caution than their male counterparts.
I'm sorry that you had a lot of bad experiences in Academia as a female, but I think you'd be surprised at how the climate has changed since then. I majored in math (graduated in 2007) and was never treated as lower than a peer to my classmates (75% of which were males). I was treated with equality in all my classes, too, not just Math. But then again I didn't foray into CS much. I took discrete math and was one of the three or so people who had thier book open and could therefore answer the prof and interact in discussions, so I don't know for sure if /that/ was why I was treated equally or not. In any case, I like to think that the sexism of even 10 years ago has abated quite a lot.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version