Well, generally it seems like women relate to male characters better than men to female ones, probably due to differences in socialization/culturation/indoctrination between men and women. It's been well-researched that in young adult literature, girls will read about male and female protagonists but boys are less likely to read a book about a female protagonist. However, After a while a great many of us females feel left out, ignored, and forgotten because yes, we get that you consider male to be the "fundamental" of humanity, and that women are the other, but can't we have a basic human plot of our own?
The question is, why won't boys read stuff with female leads. If you look at it, what female-lead series are popular with boys? The only thing I can think of off the top of my head are Tomb Raider and Metroid, both video games featuring leads with a tendency to kick butt (basically considered a male activity in our society, even though in situations with no social consequences males and females are about equally physically violent). I think this has to do with the fact that male is "default" and female is "other" In our society (when in fact, biologically, the reverse is true, but let's not go there, that doesn't have any sort of value in this argument). Our little boys are socialized to be afraid of being perceived as female or womanish. They often have crises of identity if they perceive themselves that way. But it's perfectly socailly acceptable for a girl to be a "tomboy" and almost all girls go through a tomboyish phase or engage in tomboyish behaviors. Boys are trained not to identify with female characters unless the only thing about those characters that is female is their appearance. It takes highly masculinized female characters to overcome this, generally.
WHY is this? Because western society, and much of eastern society, is a heteronormative patriarchy that uses sexism and gender roles as a form of economic and social control. Undermine the heteronormative patriarchy, maybe we'll get some nice female leads. Until then, expect shit like this.
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/indoctrinationbetween men and women. It's been well-researched that in young adult literature, girls will read about male and female protagonists but boys are less likely to read a book about a female protagonist. However, After a while a great many of us females feel left out, ignored, and forgotten because yes, we get that you consider male to be the "fundamental" of humanity, and that women are the other, but can't we have a basic human plot of our own?The question is, why won't boys read stuff with female leads. If you look at it, what female-lead series are popular with boys? The only thing I can think of off the top of my head are Tomb Raider and Metroid, both video games featuring leads with a tendency to kick butt (basically considered a male activity in our society, even though in situations with no social consequences males and females are about equally physically violent). I think this has to do with the fact that male is "default" and female is "other" In our society (when in fact, biologically, the reverse is true, but let's not go there, that doesn't have any sort of value in this argument). Our little boys are socialized to be afraid of being perceived as female or womanish. They often have crises of identity if they perceive themselves that way. But it's perfectly socailly acceptable for a girl to be a "tomboy" and almost all girls go through a tomboyish phase or engage in tomboyish behaviors. Boys are trained not to identify with female characters unless the only thing about those characters that is female is their appearance. It takes highly masculinized female characters to overcome this, generally.
WHY is this? Because western society, and much of eastern society, is a heteronormative patriarchy that uses sexism and gender roles as a form of economic and social control. Undermine the heteronormative patriarchy, maybe we'll get some nice female leads. Until then, expect shit like this.