"Men With Boobs"

[serria]

I was reading a fantasy trilogy, and was reminded about how much the genre apparently struggles with women. The first book was an impulsive purchase at the bookstore, because I liked the cover artthought the description looked interesting. And I enjoyed it, more or less - not the greatest thing I've read, but relatively entertaining. The story was about a who boy gets trained as an assassin, and his adventures thereafter. Two other characters include his somewhat dry female love interest (kind of in the ballpark of stereotypical damsel in distress, not particularly captivating character to me) and another female character who is also an assassin. This character, though has a bit of a femme fatale entrance and follows kind of an "evil badass woman" trope throughout the second book, was still kind of interesting. I enjoyed a lot of her scenes, at any rate.

Anyway, I finished the second book, and there was an interview included at the end of it. One of the questions was about the whole "strong female character" thing, and the author (who is a man) gives quite a rant. He feels, apparently, that most "strong female characters" in fantasy are really just "men with boobs" but he is very excited about the direction his female assassin character is taking in the third book. He feels his portrayal is, I guess, very true to femininity and rounds out the character, etc.

So what happens in the third book? The female assassin falls in love with the male protagonist and spends the majority of the book crying and being emotional. As, you know, women do. :P

Fantasy and science fiction are my favorite genres, but I wonder if they tend to be more sexist than other genres. For the record, I don't think a female character falling in love with a male protagonist is sexist, nor is a previously cold character suddenly becoming emotional. But juxtaposed with the mindset of the author, that any "fighting female" character who isn't emotional or in love is a "man with boobs" - I think there's a reality here with how many female characters are portrayed.

I brought this up because I am writing a fantasy story which stars a female warrior. She has a female love interest. More than that, the leading male character is the one who has to be saved. I wasn't thinking about social issues or anything when I wrote this, but that's how it turned out. It was an unintentional subversion of gender roles. Of course, I am female myself, but I wonder if my protagonist is a "man with boobs." She is certainly not demure, emotional, or romantic. This accusation, though not (yet) directed at me, bothered me because my protagonist is really not at all defined by her female gender - by fantasy genre cliches, she should just be swapped into a male character. When I started overthinking it, I was even beating myself up over having a lesbian romance - does that (unintentionally) mean that she is taking the "male" role? Does that mean she is a "butch lesbian" (she's not, she's bisexual)? Is my story suddenly about gender roles when I never wanted it to be? What if I make her love interest male, is that better or worse? What if I have no love interest - does that also make a statement about a "masculine" female character?

Blah. I hate the phrase "men with boobs." I also hate the phrase "strong female characters." Like, what do they even mean!

Comments

[siofrabunnies]

I think the problem boils down to the fundamental obstacle of equality. Firstly, men are usually seen as the default, and, secondly, there is a "men versus women"... rivalry, I suppose. Now, I'm not going to say that there are no differences between men and women. Biologically and socially, men and women are very different. But when you take those differences within the "men are default" thing, it leads to "women are different from men" instead of "men and women are different from each other". We're all writers; I think we all know how important such a subtle distinction is. That's what leads to femininity being seen as weak/gross/etc, masculinity as good/strong/powerful/etc.

I've heard the "men with boobs" thing before. It's kind of telling that I've never heard of "a woman without boobs" to describe a man, non-pejoratively, at least. Maybe someday characters will be people first, and women or men (or gay, trans, Chinese, blonde, sick, whatever) second. Those are the characters I end up enjoying to read more.

It sucks, a lot, and is one of the reasons I don't read much spec-lit anymore. I've been burned too many times with Gorean knock-offs, madonna-whore complexes, and the like. Maybe that's why I stick to short stories.

It also really sucks that there's always going to be something in your work you didn't intend, especially something as huge as gender politics. I would say go ahead and write as you have been. People are always going to read more into it that you mean them to: Do the blue curtains signify the character's depression? Are they an allegory for the writer's drug problems? Are they cornflower or azure? Write a four-page paper on the blue curtains. Maybe they're just goddamn blue!?

[serria]

That reminds me of English classes I took. One teacher in particular was adamant that everything in literature always means something, that a cup can't just be a cup. I got the same in art classes. In fact, one art teacher said that if things don't have meaning, the art is just a photograph, and there's nothing artistic about a photograph. I don't think he meant that literally photography is not an art or anything, just that if I paint a realistic picture of someone's face, it's not really art. If her expression, her clothes, who she is, if that has meaning, then it is art. The same might be said of writing. If I write just a biography of something, is it art? If it lacks a climax, a conclusion, and so on.

I don't really know. In art and writing both, I don't think it's possible for absolutely everything to have meaning, or it will just become nonsense. To be honest, I really like storytelling. To me, especially in genre writing, it's all about the story. It isn't that I dislike symbolism or anything, but I like authentic stories, that are thrilling to tell and read both. In fact, I tend to be turned off from stories that are really preachy and too full of messages. Characters and events can definitely have meaning, but a message? I don't know.

Which relates to my problem. I don't want my female warrior character to be the literary embodiment of a social agenda. At least, not at the core. I want to tell the story I see in my head, and I'm not writing it to prove that women can take on male roles - it's just who this character is. That being said, I'd love if my story could remind even one person that women shouldn't be associated with a single stereotype, and female characters can kick ass - but that is totally secondary.

I guess, I'm comfortable with what I write and why. But when I see criticism of female characters, and female authors for that matter, and knowing how sexism still persists in our society, I wonder if my story could be criticized like that, or if readers would make assumptions about my intentions.