Why do some women writers seem to hate their female characters?

[smurasaki]

Perhaps I've been reading the wrong books, but I've noticed a trend among books by women with female main characters and it's starting to bother me.  Not only do some women authors not allow their female main characters to have fun, but they seem almost to be punishing them for their career choices/heroism.  It could be that the authors in question

Comments

[smurasaki]

I'm sure you're right. And, of course, society's lessons impact stories set "in the real world" far more, which might explain why mystery fiction comes off so much worse than sci-fi/fantasy. It still bothers me that fiction written by men tends to be much more wish fulfilment (it may still have women in jeopardy, but the focus is on saving the princess not the princess's suffering, and that does matter), and fiction written by women has an edge of nightmare fulfilment. I may feel better about Lackey (and to a lesser extent Lois McMaster Bujold) making "female" risks like rape equal opportunity risks, but, on the whole, I'd rather my fantasy life didn't have them. As a side note, I wish I could explain why just making them equal opportunity risks _does_, somehow, make them seem less objectionable. O.o Something else to muse-blog about, I guess.