Men Writing Women

[Edith Piaff]

What do you think about men writing as female characters? Or women writing as male? Is it okay to do? Is there something very fundamental about the male or female experience that the author will miss without realizing it when writing as the opposite gender? There is a subreddit that discusses men writing women, and people there discuss how they feel women are mischaracterized by men. It's rather humorous, but I remain unconvinced, still riding the fence.

[Phil U]

I think this is a slippery slope... why stop there? If authors are to be restricted by gender, why not too then by race, nationality, age, sexual orientation, religion, physical or mental ability,... Pretty soon no-one can write as anyone but themselves, and the world will be full of nothing but autobiographies.

I can see no justification - let alone practical framework - for policing this matter, in any way, shape or form. Let authors write what they will - some will do it well, some badly, and some in between, and that is up to each reader to decide for themselves.

[Autumn K]

I think whenever authors are writing characters different from themselves there's always an element that has the potential to be missing. Whether it be gender, race, religion, species, etc. So I never think there's an issue when someone who identifies as a man writes as a woman character. Sure, there may be an element of woman comradery missing (or other things) but I'm sure that's also true when someone is writing as a cancer patient if they haven't had cancer and only observed someone who did. Not every female/male experience is the same, therefore it is typically not lacking if an element is missing. So personally, I have no issue when authors write main characters that are different genders than themselves because most writers are in the habit of writing characters that have elements different from themselves in one way or another, gender is often just another element of a character.

That being said, I have never read a book where the main character was a different gender from the author in which the gender of the character was a significant point within the novel. Growing up I loved the book The Fault in Our Stars (Main character was a girl named Hazel, written by John Green), but the fact that Hazel was a woman was not a huge part of her character itself, only her reality. Same thing with Matilda or The Book Thief. Being a girl or woman was a character trait but not necessarily the main point of the novel itself.