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[kateorman]

A thought-provoking rant worth the attention of my fellow fandom feminists: A Short Treatise On Why, Maybe, Women Writing Fanfic Prefer To Write Male Characters. [Sadly, this is now flocked due to wank.]

I've been reading a lot of XKCD. Here's what the Doctor is probably like in bed.

Walking to Babylon passes the Bechdel Test. Sweet

Comments

[jblum]

...Sweetie, you never noticed that I was quite consciously ensuring the Bechdel-worthy-ness of all our books? :-)

[kateorman]

I encountered The Rule years before we met. It was just nice that someone pointed it out. :)

[infinitarian]

I've never been entirely sure about the "about something other than a man" part of that. Say the heroine and her female mentor discuss the despicable murder of her sidekick by the villain -- does it really make the story less woman-friendly if villain or victim is a man?

I'd have thought not, honestly. But then I'm (obviously) not a woman.

It's also a difficult rule to apply consistently to SF, where characters might be hermaphrodites, sex-changers, shape-shifters, androgynes, robots, AIs, creatures of indeterminate gender, triple-sexed aliens etc. In some contexts, introducing women would in itself be a retrograde step towards familiar gender categories.

[antikythera]

I love that rant and I agree with it, and I think it explains why I like to write about male characters in fanfic more often. If I invent original characters they're as often female, because I'm trying to write one that doesn't annoy the crap out of me like all the female characters in my fandoms.

[ashamel]

Prismatic passes, I believe.

And yes, the rant about female characters has many familiar issues. (Wasn't there an xkcd strip about that too?)