Young Writers Society

Guys: what turns you off to reading a specific book? At what point is there too much "girly stuff" in it to make you not want to read (and please cite something other than the hot-pink "teen" books; they make me nauseous too), or does this seem to happen by default when there is a female protagonist?

I'm mostly curious because (using what's becoming a handy example for anything), for example, the Harry Potter series has a male protagonist, yet appeals to children of both genders. However, I couldn't think of an example on the other side: where there is a female protagonist, yet the story appeals to people of both genders.

Yeah, anything teen lit with a lot of pink and bucketfuls of purses/shoes/designer sunglasses sprinkled across the front cover immediatley turns me off. Titles do a lot too. Like "Sisterhood of the Traveling pants" would be an immediate put-down.

But other than that, I don't care if the protagonist is male or female, as long as the story and the characters themselves are well-developed. In fact, according to a Writers Digest article, male protagonists are going out of style in all genres except for high action/adventure or hard-boiled crime. More and more, literature is being geared towards a female audience. At the moment however, I can't think of a book equally as popular as HP wich as a female MC. Go figure.

-Kylan

More and more, literature is being geared towards a female audience.

Which is what I'm wondering: what aspects, in your opinion, make it geared toward females? (other than the obvious pink-shoes-handbags stuff)

A female character. Not to sound chauvenistic or anything.

Yeah, what I meant is that more and more females are becoming the protagonists of novels...

-Kylan

Which-in my opinion, i'm not trying to offend anybody or anything- is due to the continually declining intellegence of the male gender. I know it sounds REALLY sexist of me, but we've all got idiocy in us, most likely the same level for various people, but guys try to hide it less than girls. Which kinda contradicts my earlier statement, only kinda. If guys stopped acting like idiots, they'd seem a lot smarter and we'd see more male heros. ~.^ just food for thought.

The thing you have to understand about Mr Harry Potter, is that he’s not a ‘pure’ male character. What I mean by this, is that he has many feminine qualities. He’s frail, he cries, he shows love rather than hides it, etc., etc.

Heck there is even that period of time (OotP) where Harry is very emotional, gets angry easily and feels he is under appreciated - a metaphor, perhaps?

I suspect you’ll notice that many fictional character that are popular with both sexes contain elements of each gender. An obvious example that jumps to mind is Jack Sparrow, as well as the Doctor. This androgynous nature in characters allows both genders to connect with them.

So if you want to make your female character popular amongst males as well as females, it may be an idea to write down all the different attributes that are typically applied to each gender, and give your protagonist a mix of characteristics from each column.

I pretty much hate it when the female has to go through the gamut of emotion, not to say that an emotional story is bad. I can't stand it when emotions overpower the writing.

Author13, I think you're stereotyping.

-Kylan

Well, I'm a girl, yet almost all of my favorite writers are men, almost all of my favorite books have male protagonists, and my favorite characters in books are always guys. It seems that the opposite of what I am appeals to me.
If one switches my likes and dislikes in relation to gender, it would follow that a guy would like female writers and female characters. Obviously, this isn't always the case...

I agree with what Sureal said about popular male characters having elements of both genders. Someone once asked J.K. Rowling why she, as a female writer, chose to make Harry a boy. She said that's just how he appeared in her head.

I would guess that many, many books with female protagonists are about social constructs or romance, and those things don't always appeal to men.

(We all hate the trashy teen novels, though. I want to cry when I see things like the color pink, shoes, sparkly things, handsome prom dates, or the words "gossip" and/or "chick" on the front of a book.)

It could be because there seems to be more female authors than male authors. I could really only name a few males, but loads of woman writers. And most women would be more inclined to write about girls (give or take a few), therefore, there are more books aimed at girls.

Boys are more likely to read books with male protagonists, but girls don't usually display such a strong gender preference. It probably goes back to the social roots of gender: girls can wear pants, but boys can't wear dresses. Girls are taught that it is okay to identify with boys, and do boy things, but boys are still taught that to be feminine (and therefore, to identify with girls or female characters) is to be weak. People don't want to read about a character that they can't identify with. (I'm taking an entire course on gender/race and the social roles and formation thereof, so please excuse me.)

The best example I can think of is The Golden Compass. The lead character, Lyra, is female, but there's a balancing male lead, her dæmon, Pantalaimon. Intriguingly, her girlishness attraction to the glamor of the high life in London is cast in a negative light; it was something that stood between her and her goals, a pretty distraction. The rest of her character traits, except maybe her empathy for others, are traditionally masculine traits.
Would any of our male members like to comment on this suggestion?

(I'm one of those girls who usually likes the male characters best, but I think that has a lot to do with being a fantasy fan. I can only think of two strong female leads in fantasy novels - Kaye (from Tithe), and Lyra. Female characters are usually side characters, and they're often trivialized. I liked Hermione a lot, but post-HBP Tonks was just a let down.)

I think it's more of a relative thing. In the past, there were always far more male writers than female writers; and generally, books written by guys have male protagonists, and books written by women have female protagonists. Just relates back to the "write what you know" tip.

However, the ratio of male writers to female writers has steadily been changing to 1 to 1. As more female writers emerge, more books with female protagonists emerge. Thus, it begins to seem like there are fewer books with male protagonists, even though that number has either stayed the same or increased. It's just that books with female protagonists have increased at a faster rate.

Get it?

There are still great books with male protagonists, and indeed it still seems to be weighted in favor of male protagonists as all the Pulitzer prize winning books this century (that is, since 2000) either have a male main character, or have an ensemble cast. The only exception is "Middlesex" in 2003, which is about a girl who is more comfortable as a guy.

So I would say it's all relative. Books with male protagonists are still the norm, but that's changing.

But of course, I'm not talking about books aimed toward teenage readers as I have no idea what the case is there.

I don't agree with the fact that guys like books with male protagonists more. I think who the character is matters way more than their gender. I have more friend that are girls than friends who are boys, and I don't care. Overall, with a good character, you won't even bother to care about their gender.
One thing that I hate about writing is that steryotypes are the norm for most characters. Writers are sending bad messages by promoting this, and I don't agree.

Meep wrote:Boys are more likely to read books with male protagonists, but girls don't usually display such a strong gender preference. It probably goes back to the social roots of gender: girls can wear pants, but boys can't wear dresses. Girls are taught that it is okay to identify with boys, and do boy things, but boys are still taught that to be feminine (and therefore, to identify with girls or female characters) is to be weak. People don't want to read about a character that they can't identify with. (I'm taking an entire course on gender/race and the social roles and formation thereof, so please excuse me.)

The best example I can think of is The Golden Compass. The lead character, Lyra, is female, but there's a balancing male lead, her dæmon, Pantalaimon. Intriguingly, her girlishness attraction to the glamor of the high life in London is cast in a negative light; it was something that stood between her and her goals, a pretty distraction. The rest of her character traits, except maybe her empathy for others, are traditionally masculine traits.
Would any of our male members like to comment on this suggestion?

(I'm one of those girls who usually likes the male characters best, but I think that has a lot to do with being a fantasy fan. I can only think of two strong female leads in fantasy novels - Kaye (from Tithe), and Lyra. Female characters are usually side characters, and they're often trivialized. I liked Hermione a lot, but post-HBP Tonks was just a let down.)

Way to make me feel like a macho idiot.

Well Kylan, I might be ^.^ but all the guys I know are like that, its really sad, and in my experience guys ARE like that. A lot of them are really smart, but they just act like idiots. Guys, stop acting like idiots please