From author and regular visitor Seeley James:
Can a Man Write a Female Lead? Why not? Ms. Rowling wrote a boy’s story. The Wall Street Journal ran an article just last week about women writing under male pseudonyms when writing male characters. Why couldn’t I write a female protagonist in a thriller?
I love female leads in thrillers. I’d been working on one for years. I spent months honing a full novel featuring her. When I thought I was ready, I sent my first draft out to beta readers. Wow. What a learning experience! She received a great reception among men—but was universally panned by women.
. . . .
First, here are the lessons I had already learned during a brief stint writing short stories that appeared in writers groups and webzines:
- Women read a lot into an author’s name & gender. Women were less critical when I submitted a story under a genderless or feminine pen name (Terry James, Jamie James, etc). And significantly less critical when I used a feminine name (Barb James, Julia James).
- Men do not like reading a woman protagonist in the first person. They just can’t get inside a woman’s head. Must raise the homophobia flag or something.
- Men and women have different expectations of female protagonists. They expect male protagonists to start kicking ass based on their assessment of the danger at hand. Women, apparently, are expected to think it over, talk about it, try to avoid the conflict, then throw an uppercut.
. . . .
2. ACTIONS: Women readers don’t like to read about violent women. One of the most violent men in literature today, Jack Reacher, has a fan base that is 65% women. Yet those same women would turn up their noses at a Jane Reacher if she were equally violent.
While there are terrific examples of violent-capable heroines in thrillers, they tend to be a great deal less violent than any male counterpart. Take my favorite heroine for example: Zoe Sharp’s Charlie Fox. Charlie resorts to violence only as a last resort and always with a sense of guilt that lasts for many pages after the action. Jack Reacher will run through a bunker killing everyone in sight without a second thought and women will eat it up. But a heroine is expected to be selective, sparing the worker bees. What do you think—Should a heroine kill everyone in a conspiracy or only the leader?
Link to the rest at BookTrib