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Why the female protagonist just doesn't do it for you
Hi everyone!
I'm trying to write a short article on a subject some of you brought up when Rob Thurman's Cal Leandros series came up in conversation (as a group, you converted me, and I really like the series) a few months ago. It's been in my head ever since. The brief subject was, "I will never read a book with a female lead character and only read books with male lead characters."
Can you tell me more about this? Why this is so? Have you ever broken your own rule, and regretted it, or did not regret reading a female protag lead book but figured it was a fluke and you wouldn't do it again? Or the female POV just isn't interesting to you, even if the male POV is written by a woman (which you'd figure, is filtered through a female's POV anyhow).
All I have to go on are the reasons *I* think why, but I'd like to hear your own reasons, if you wouldn't mind telling me more about it. I think it's fascinating. I'm kind of in the same camp, but I have my own biases.
I'm trying to write a short article on a subject some of you brought up when Rob Thurman's Cal Leandros series came up in conversation (as a group, you converted me, and I really like the series) a few months ago. It's been in my head ever since. The brief subject was, "I will never read a book with a female lead character and only read books with male lead characters."
Can you tell me more about this? Why this is so? Have you ever broken your own rule, and regretted it, or did not regret reading a female protag lead book but figured it was a fluke and you wouldn't do it again? Or the female POV just isn't interesting to you, even if the male POV is written by a woman (which you'd figure, is filtered through a female's POV anyhow).
All I have to go on are the reasons *I* think why, but I'd like to hear your own reasons, if you wouldn't mind telling me more about it. I think it's fascinating. I'm kind of in the same camp, but I have my own biases.
no subject
I seek to effect change in our culture both politically and through my writing. I want to excise those aspects that put constraints on both women *and* men based solely on their gender. (Yes, I know, you can't just remove things, but I find it a useful visualization at times because then I have to figure out what needs to be 'filled in'.)
By constructing a completely new (or as completely new as possible given that I am still a product of my culture) culture, I can begin to deconstruct the one I live in. Nor is it a matter of simply having men and women trade places. That probably worked *once*. Nor am I interested in creating utopias, just exploring what could happen if certain basic assumptions were different. For example, while many people recognize the ferocity of a mother defending her young, there's still something of a disconnect between that and the idea of females protecting the group, especially if those females are human. What happens when a culture doesn't have that disconnect? What caused it (or what was absent from our own cultural history)? How is it expressed? Where do fathers/males fit in? What kind of mind set do the members of this culture share? Where do they differ among themselves?
That said, I still can't see myself writing wussy protagonists. :-)