Dude, You Write Like a Girl

In my current work in progress the protagonist is an early-twenties female, and more than a few times I had to stop myself and ask, “Would someone of her cultural makeup actually do/say that?”, and the fact that it’s in first person makes this issue much more crucial. And it brings up the entire issue of how unique should your character?

You see, in character-driven stories in the first person, I would think that there has to be some unnaturalness about the protagonist. You don’t want to be reading the story of someone who typifies their demographic. Stories are about something or someone unusual, not expected, so there has to be some quirks that smudges our expectations — without taxing the reader by stretching the suspension of disbelief too far.

Then there’s the looming criticism of the feministas-lite — I didn’t make the woman strong enough, she’s too subservient to the male paradigm, and by the way, what does a man know about how a woman thinks? This might be a purely conjectured (paranoid) prediction on my part, but let’s face it: the woman’s market for fiction is pretty big, and this is somewhat of a romance novel so this kind of complaint could be on the horizon. The idea that certain thoughts or actions belong to certain genders is worthy of ridicule, but since feminism has had a good few decades of making everyone feel guilty and battering-ramming the cultural roles of the sexes (whoops! I’ll have to edit that out later), this reluctance for someone like me in writing from a woman’s point of view is automatic. Feminist critique serves as an ankle-strapped minirevolver in the critical arsenal of over-imaginative reviewers; sexism can be read into a wad of chewing gum. I’m not too worried about it, ultimately, though I haven’t completely sloughed off the socialization.

So, do men and women inherently think differently, or are they only tendencies — and are these tendencies genetic or cultural/subcultural? I don’t know gender theory, nor do I care to really delve into a subject foisted by remorseful universities with too much public funding, but it is worth thinking about. In fiction, as long as it’s within the realm of the believable universe, the author can make anyone think or do anything. Regardless, someone, somewhere will have a problem with it.