Writers out there - what about genders?

[Durelin]

I will also stick to what I know, which is roleplaying:
I too tend to play male characters, and find it much easier to write as them. I would not say it is easier to write as a male character, but there is certainly something about it... Also, like Aman, I tend to choose according to the RPG, and what character types are needed. Since I tend to stick in the Shire, the many relatively new RPGers like to start out as a character that is their own gender. And since often these RPGers are female...males are a must! In many RPs, to get in on the action also demands a male character, for reality's sake.

I also consider the meaning of roleplaying. In my mind, the point is often to take on the role of someone completely different from you. It is a way to 'escape reality', I guess (I mean, I would find it quite boring to write about reality, at least concerning myself), as well as a way to take a different look at things. You truly do think about things your character is experiencing in a new light, and what the character is experiencing, if he/she is different enough from you, will be enlightening as well. I definitely have not experienced what it is like to be in a battle, but this is something I try to think about, and from my character's point of view (with his own personality, intelligence, background, environment, etc.), when the need arises. I expect it would be the same way when writing a story or a novel.

The fact is, though, men and women are both humans, and so their brains operate in the same way. Just because on average the male and female mind do not think alike, it does not mean that we can't cross over into the other train of thought, just to take into view what it is like. Hmmmm...that sounds kind of odd...

Although none of them, of course, would be able to read a map properly.

And that is why no members of the fellowship were female...

-Durelin

[Aylwen Dreamsong]

Believable though, and with a tendency to die...

That happens to me a lot too. Them darn characters...they just run away and I have no control over whether they live or die!

My very first RPG here (An Audience With the King), I played a male. Not just a male...a male dwarf. I remember thinking, "I'll be fine with anything as long as I'm not in the dwarf group!" Lo and behold, I was assigned to the dwarven group. With help, I got through it and by the end I found it rather fun to be able to play a rough 'n tumble, greedy dwarf, and I didn't shy away from male characters, even if most of my characters have been female. I'd say it's been rather even...I haven't been keeping track really...

In any case, when writing a story that has absolutely *nothing* to do with RPing, I usually have a female character, I'll admit. But I don't make them warriors or anything, I take them from real life and give them flaws (but not too many!) that, say, I would have or my friends would have. Not only that, I surround them with male secondary characters, most of whom turn out to be more loveable or more interesting than the man character!

-Aylwen

[Lhundulinwen]

In most of my short stories (and come to think of it, my novel) all of my warrior characters aren't warriors to begin with. Sure, I have had the occasional sociopathic assassin (which was a LOT of fun to write. Hey, Jade, if you read this- Edward RULES!), but all of my main character hero/warrior had to be thrust into the battle or action. Much like the hobbits, they did not start the actual war, and wanted nothing to do with it until it was dancing on their doorsteps.

Does that make a difference to your oppinion about female warriors? How about the idea of a world where male and female roles are switched? Just wondering.

[Child of the 7th Age]

It's strange how we seem to be focusing in on the narrow question of women as warriors rather than considering character as a whole in relation to gender and raising more basic questions.

There are lots of issues we could discuss, but I am especially interested in the question of what makes a female character "strong" (or for that matter a male character). How does a character grow and evolve so that the person you end up with at the end is different than the person you started out with? Is a particular character someone whom others can initially rely on or does she grow in that regard during the course of the story? I have to admit that I do favor characters who change rather than ones set in stone. And ability to wield a weapon is only one indication of a character's strength. There are a thousand different ways that a character can show her strength, and some of these may be even more criticial to the story: quick wits, specilized skills, emotional support, knowledge of the past, or just being a moral exemplar.

Whether or not a female character wields a weapon is at least partially determined by your chosen plot. If you are writing a novel with enormous numbers of battle scenes or continuous hand-to-hand combat with dragons and Orcs, and you want to utilize one or more women, you are likely to need to hand that character a sword. You could possibly place them in another role -- as a healer, for example, or a scout, or a handler of horses -- but you'd have to be creative about that. Nor does every warrior have to have the same degree of skill with weapons. In straight combat, Tolkien's Hobbits could not have been the equivalent of an Aragorn or a Boromir, yet they somehow managed to survive.

But there are many, many fantasy tales and epics where battle scenes and even fighting occupy only a relatively small piece of our attention. I tend to prefer that type of mixed storyline so whether or not my character can fight may be less important than many other things. In fact, of my female characters, I can only think of one who would qualify as a "warrior"(and that out of necessity). I had one older female character (my "Cami" alter ego) forced to defend several young children the best way she could who then "broke down" and was pretty shook up after she actually succeeded in killing someone.

Nurumaiel -- I do think it's possible to write interesting characters within the context of traditional ideas about gender: strong mothers, for example, or devoted daughters. I tend not to do this--I really do prefer women who rally against traditional roles and stereotypes, but that is an individual choice. Interestingly though, I'm not usually concerned about limitations that have to do with weapons or fighting. More likely, my character ends up going against what she is expected to do or be (expectations of marriage for example or even of physical appearance or of accepting the values her own people put forward.) Then I use the story as a vehicle so that she can learn more about herself and figure out exactly where her own path in life should lead.

We're all put here for different reasons and with different gifts. Finding out those reasons and exploring those gifts is part of the responsibility we bear. That's a personal belief that I do push onto my characters, at least the ones who 'feel' and act most lifelike.

Just one last question for anyone: are the attributes that make a female character strong the same ones that make a male character strong? Or are their inherent differences based on gender? My gut feeling is that there are gender differences, and those play into character and personality, even if you are writing a female warrior. Yet, I think we need to be careful about immediately assuming that a female character would do "X" or "Y" simply because of gender. Sometimes life is stranger than fiction! I once had a close friend who had spent several years in her life overseas as a tank commander. She was physically the tiniest and most gentle looking creature you could imagine. But based on her iron will, I can well believe that she commanded a squadron of tanks!

Perhaps I'm an oddball, but....most of the stories I write, if not all, have at least two protagonists-- 1 male and 1 female. I am female, but I find it interesting and....exciting, I suppose, to write two such opposite protagonists, only to find that they really aren't opposite at all. True, men do tend to take on a more protectoresque stereotype--but as a writer, you can change that. Who cares if women are perceived as being weak or ornamental? As the creator of a world, you may make your society what you wish it to be, which is something I very much enjoy doing. Not necessarily giving men a subservient role, but making the two genders equal--TRULY equal--and describing what comes of it.

Just my two cents'.

[Nurumaiel]

There are lots of issues we could discuss, but I am especially interested in the question of what makes a female character "strong" (or for that matter a male character).

Child, Remember Corsairs and Corsets? In another thread (actually about warrior females, I believe) you came up with the idea of making an all-female RPG, but the characters would not be warriors. All the characters were so astoundingly different and each one became 'strong' ('cept the villains, of course; they lost power) without ever picking up a sword. My own character, Adrama, in example. When the game began she was very bitter because she had loved Denethor and she had lost him; she was rather spoiled, she was a bit immature, vain, etc... by the end of the game she had lost her bitterness because she had found herself a good husband who she loved more, she had grown mature through helping the poor good lass who was the sister and daughter of the two villains, and so on. I learned a lot from that RPG.

I do like to make my female character more of stereotypes... not in the sense that they're the same boring old characters that have been played thousands and thousands of times over, but they have the traditional roles. The two main female characters in my current works are Mérali, the sweetheart of the soldier lad who is the main character, and Érsin, a sixteen-year-old girl who came to the village in which the main characters live after leaving the life of the wandering people with her grandmother. Both the latter character and her grandmother wanted a life in a little cottage, sewing and knitting and cleaning house rather than wandering about through dangers.

They had practically no role when I first began to write the story, but just last night they chose one for themselves, causing the book to switch often between what they're doing at home and what the lads are doing on the mainland where the war is being fought. Chirfan, the main character, sets sail for the mainland to fight, taking with him two eleven-year-old boys, Tilaran and Haran (they haven't yet told me how they happened to go to a war at such a young age; all I know is that they do). The two boys leave behind their ten-year-old friend Geran, who naturally is rather lonely without them. Mérali becomes like an older sister to Geran, occupying his time with all sorts of little adventures in the village. Mérali also comes to be in charge of a school for young girls to teach them in studies of things such as history, mathematics, etc. but also in studies of faith. Érsin assists her in that. Later that school develops into a school for boys as well, as the boys have no other teacher; all the men teachers in the village have gone off to fight. And of course Mérali struggles as a teacher!

I begin to see things I didn't see before... Mérali is a warrior on her own little battlefield. She does not fight with a sword and shield, but she does fight. All characters do in the best books. They're all warriors of a sense.

The idea that 'strength' in a character means being a warrior is rather absurd, if you consider. St. Joan of Arc was strong, one must admit. She was a real official warrior. St. Thérèse the Little Flower, however, was a different type of warrior. She was the youngest in a family of five girls, grew up in a very sheltered way, became a Carmelite nun in her teens and died of tuberculosis in her twenties. Her life was extremely simple and 'little.' She did nothing grand and glorious as St. Joan of Arc, but still she was strong. She did the little things that are often so much harder to do than the big things. In example she never grew annoyed with those who spoke sharply to her, but rather treated them with more patience and kindness than anyone else. All things she did she did well, regardless of whether she succeeded or not. She was simple, but strong. She said herself, "I am not a warrior who fought with earthly arms but with 'the sword of the spirit which is the Word of God.'"

Therefore, dwelling on this, a writer should make all their female characters be warriors... yet these warriors do not need to fight with 'earthly arms' to be strong.