Weekly Fiction Workshop
Men & Women Writing Each Other Badly
Male authors aren’t the only problem
It is both hilarious and disturbing to see Reddit and Twitter threads with examples showcasing how badly male authors seem to write their women.
From giving them borderline eating disorders to making them only objects that the male characters want to have sex with, we love to laugh and cringe at the male author’s gaze.
Even a glimpse at the r/menwritingwomen Reddit thread makes me want to roll my eyes so far up into my head that I can study the frontal lobe of my brain — which male authors seem to think I don’t have.
But as funny (and as disturbing) as it is, I also know that there is a real danger in men portraying women this way. It tells other men that it is okay to treat women as sex objects, that their girlfriends or wives have no impact on their “story” or life, and that their opinions aren’t as important as theirs.
It also portrays women as helpless, lacking in personality, or simply just boring. This takes away female character agency and causes a huge problem for women in media and in the real world.
But the truth is that women do this to men, too.
