[ SECRET POST #2181 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2181 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 100 secrets from Secret Submission Post #312.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 1 2 - too big ], [ 1 2 (again) - repeat ], [ 4 - trolls ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I can see your point, and part of me strongly agrees with you, but the way you phrased this makes me strongly doubt you are an original fiction writer. I am, and while I think that writers should be as diverse as they can be character-wise, sometimes it just doesn't happen that way.

One of my novels, for example, has a balanced cast gender-wise, but the protagonist, the antagonist, and 3/5 major characters are male. Granted, I'd say most of the minor characters are women, and I like to think that my two major-character girls are well-written - they are smart, well-rounded, independent people who are not just in the story to be love interests. They have their own ambitions and their own personalities, as every character should regardless of race/gender/etc. However, despite my hard work on my girls, I still feel like I'm probably going to get accused of having a predominantly male cast if this ever sees the light of day. And as a writer, to be honest, I don't really get it. My main character is a guy because he is a guy. So is my antagonist. There is simply no other reason for it. That's just how they came to me and it's how I've always seen them. It has nothing to do with "internalized misogyny". It has to do with the fact that the creative process is mysterious, and some characters - gasp! - end up being men.

There's trying to be inclusive in your writing, and then there's being diverse just for the sake of it. I'm all for writers being diverse and progressive, but if you try to make your characters fit labels when it's not really working for them, they often come across as unconvincing, which is the last thing you want. "Token" characters often do more harm than good to the demographic they're trying to represent.

I agree with you that all-male (AND all-female, IMO) casts are lazy writing. Writers who notice they're doing this should really make an effort to include at least a few female characters, if nothing else for the sake of realism. But time and effort should be spent on their development. They shouldn't just be cardboard cutouts. But in my opinion, there is nothing inherently wrong with having a predominantly male cast. It honestly just happens that way sometimes, and while I agree that the sheer number of predominantly male casts out there is problematic, no single author should be shat on for it unless you have some way of knowing they did it purposely (for sexist reasons).

[(Anonymous)]

Not OP but I've never had the problem you describe. I've changed the genders of several of my work-in-progress characters before writing them into the story. It comes easy to me. Sometimes I may end up with a slightly masculine woman or a feminine man, but that doesn't bother me because I find those types very interesting to begin with. That said, none of my readers have a clue.

[(Anonymous)]

...and that may work well for you, but not everyone's creative mind works that way.

One can not just just pressure artists, into swapping characters genders or their 'OMG Sexist!'.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm in the same boat. My character's gender is decided based on what feels right to me. The very idea that I should just CHANGE it because I need to fit a quota or 'make it acceptable' is... offensive to me. It goes for gender, race, sexual orientation, and even what culture/religion they are. It's a part of them, unless I have a damn good reason to change it, I won't just arbitrarily change it to please people. Maybe it's a knee-jerk reaction, but... it was once suggested to me that I change one of my gay male characters in to a girl, and I just... the idea was so repulsive that I stopped asking them to beta my stories.

[(Anonymous)]

My co-author and I have had long discussions on this, because I refuse to read works without at least one strong female character. I don't necessarily care if she's the love interest or not, I just want a strong female character, and I get tired of sausage-fests pretty quickly. My co-author, on the other hand, has never enjoyed writing female characters, and gravitates toward writing men, and her female characters mostly come off as barely even 2D, let along 3D, unless I prod her a lot on it.

As for myself, I'm comfortable writing male or female characters, and often enjoy writing my female characters more.

I also read a lot, and I gave up reading a novel that had all sorts of rave reviews, but when I started it, I didn't find even word one mention of a living female character until around 150 pages in, and just after she was mentioned, she was murdered. Uh. No.