in Funny

Male Writer Believes He Perfectly Writes Female Characters — And He Gets Shut Way Down

2.1k Views

You’re most likely familiar with the infamous Tumblr joke about how male writers often depict their female characters.

You know the one — where the female character possesses so much boobage that she practically bounces down the stairs, ricocheting off the walls?

Well, aside from its absurd hilarity, this joke still tends to ring true for many male authors in the world, who are apparently incapable of approaching a female character without being hyper-aware of her sexuality and physical appearance.

Recently, one of these male authors appeared on the #Ownvoices thread, which endeavors to emphasize the need for marginalized characters to be written by people who share the character’s identity.

The male author in question asserted that such an argument was invalid since he had “successfully” written a female main character, despite being a man:

I think writers should be able to write from any perspective as long as they can pull it off. It takes research, skill, and creativity, but if a good writer can’t do those things, he/she isn’t a good writer, right?

My book is a first person POV and the MC is a woman. I’m definitely not a woman. But it works because I was able to pull it off. I reject someone saying I couldn’t write a female MC because I’m a male because, well, I just did. It’s called writing.

His comments led author Gwen C. Katz to seek out a sample of his book, which she then gleefully shared with her Twitter followers. Not surprisingly, this male author’s female POV left something to be desired.

Yeeeeeah … I don’t know, my dude, it doesn’t sound like you’ve even had a conversation with a woman, much less done “research” on one.

Oh, but wait. There’s more.

People were, obviously, unimpressed with the author’s representation of a woman. (But, they also had to admit that it made for pretty funny unintentional satire.)

Gwen wrote an addendum asserting that she’s not against men writing female characters and fully believes that it’s possible for them to do so in a realistic and respectful fashion. However, she emphasizes the importance of acknowledging that lived experience is even more powerful than imagination, and that this male author’s claims imply that marginalized voices aren’t necessary at all.

Just, like, stop writing about boobs when you’ve never experienced the frustration of wearing a bra, okay??