Who's a better writer, men or women?

[MartinParish]

I don't like these kinds of generalizations because I think they border on sexism. I prefer to view someone as an individual, rather than assuming that all men are like x and all women are like y, which is usually based on clumsy stereotypes.

[C0ldf1re]

... I think they border on sexism...

They have rather crossed the border! (And without a passport!)

[PhotonicGuy]

I don’t think that if we speak about men and women and which of them are writing better it means that we crossed the border on sexism. I also don't like the generalizations just because each people is unique and has different abilities to write . But, unfortunately our society is working based on generalizations (gender, age category, and so on).

[Waheeddd]

Gender is not determing factor in writing. we cannot judge whether a book is good or not by simply their sex. No distinction between them.

[mjmooney]

Crazy question. There is a charity shop (I think in the U.S. they are called thrift shops) near where I live that actually displays its secondhand books by "male authors" and "female authors". Makes me laugh every time.

It's true that - as a man - I read quite a bit of "typically male" stuff (military history, Hemingway, etc.) - and that I wouldn't read girly romances, but in the field of non-genre literature, I have read tons of great writing by women: Viginia Woolf, Olivia Manning, Penelope Lively, Doris Lessing, Margaret Atwood, etc., etc.

Men can't do "feelings"? Tell it to Proust and D. H. Lawrence.

Mike

[PhotonicGuy]

Men definitely have feelings. I think that the kind of books written by men may differ from those written by women, but again you can not generalize. Each human is unique and each book is unique, so we must enjoy them all.

[lapunluyang]

We should not say which one is better just by gender arbitrarily ,it is up to the type of an article ,etc.

[aubriedoo]

I personally think men are better at writing thrillers, and suspense... and I think women are better at writing romance. There are acceptions to that idea however. V.C Andrews is a great suspense writer and some would say that Nicholas Sparks is a great romance author. But just from the books I have read it tends to be the women that write great romance and men that write great thrillers... in my own oppinion.

[tigeropig]

I don't care if it is a man or woman as long as they have talent. That is what really matters in books. Also if you like a certain genre and read a genre you don't care for, don't blame it on the gender of the author because it is your own opinion and not the authors fault that you didn't like their book.

[J.Seishu]

If I had to choose one I would have to go with men. Simply for the reason that most of my favorite books are written by men. Make no misstake, there are lots of good female writers out there and the whole thing is really just about the talent of each individual author.

[C0ldf1re]

... most of my favorite books are written by men....

Are you sure? Lots of females have used male pen names.

[StephenKingman]

... most of my favorite books are written by men....

Are you sure? Lots of females have used male pen names.

Intriguing.....give me a few examples?

[laci_baby]

Several!!
Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte published under the names Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell.
George Eliot was the pen name for Mary Ann Evans.
Louisa May Alcott used several names but mostly it was A.M. Barnard.
George Sand was actually Aurore Dudevant.
H.D. Imagiste was the pen name of Hilda Doolittle.
And Alice Mary Norton was Andre Norton.

Also many of them were anonymous like Jane Austen whom published under A Lady. Or they could use their initials like J.K. Rowling.

[Mxlilly]

Gender has nothing to do with it ... I have read books thinking the author was male and discovered otherwise and vice versa.

There are many influences when selecting a book but I can honestly say the gender of the author has never even entered my mind.

Same here. In fact I just read a book by Chris Knopf and had I not seen his picture on the back flap I never would have known he was a man. Before reading that I would have said that the one area where women may outdo men a bit is with creating a female character and making her believable. But nope, this man does a fantastic job of it.

[Perrywinkle47]

Yeah well it is a stereotype that men are good at thriller and horror, whereas women do better with emotions and feelings. And yes this generalization is true to an extent but still there are exceptions to this as well. Some times you cannot judge the gender of the author and you think it to be of one gender but after reading the author's note, you find it to be the opposite. So, its never good to generalize, we should respect individualism.