Men Write Women - Or: How I Learned To Stop Loving Literature and Worry About Patriarchy

[NNewt84]

That's right - there actually exists a feminist on Twitter who nitpicks various books where women are depicted in a... not-so-flattering light, and paints this as how all male writers write female characters.

So... I guess Neil Gaiman is a joke to this broad, then?

https://twitter.com/men_write_women

We don’t get real pockets in pants because we have tiny purses in our vaginas!!! #thanksforthat #menwritingwomen (Stuart Woods, Desperate Measures)

ah yes, because every description of a woman is incomplete without describing her breasts as well #submission (PLAINSONG, Kent Haruf)

can't wait for everyone to tell me this is 'just how the character thinks' BECAUSE THE NARRATOR IS A DAMN DOG (THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN, Garth Stein)

Not to mention, all the circlejerking going on with her feed.

A note from a very weary editor, to all male writers: Women's breasts are not communication devices. They are not sending you, or your male protagonists, encoded messages. They are, in fact, insentient. They neither dance nor issue invitations.

It's also so defeminising if a male writer pays more attention to the women's breast than the actual owner of them. Makes it seem like women are just a holder for breasts and nothing more than lust objects. I HATE it. I love good smut but this shit is the worst

Also, to male writers trying their luck with female protagonists: we think about our boobs SO MUCH LESS THAN YOU THINK. And when we do, it's much more often 'shit the nuts fell down my bra', 'ugh, underboob sweat', or 'damm they hurt today'. NOT: 'ooh so soft and sensual'.

Here’s one for
@men_write_women
. I know I always fight without a bra and flash my nipples.

It's just pathetic - they can just pick up a book that actually depicts females more positively. Fucking feminists, always trying to ruin everything, and treat women as victims. smh

 

[I Love Beef]

Shitty SJW art criticism only now for writing.

Another new SJW whore potshot thread, I like.

 

[UnKillShredDur]

Women were a mistake.

 

[SkunkFeet]

There's an entire subreddit of that shit as well. Like 70% of the romance books that have dudes with rippling 90-packs on the front aren't full of unrealistic writing of men. It's fiction. Most of the characters are probably not going to be realistic.

 

[Vorhtbame]

"But no living man am I! You are looking upon a woman. Eowyn am I, Eomund's daughter. You stand between me and my lord and kin. Begone, if you be not deathless! For living or dark undead, I will smite you, if you touch him."

Though I'll agree that nobody who complains about "men writing women" ever speaks, acts, or thinks like this.

 

[Marco Fucko]

Obligatory.

 

[Notgoodwithusernames]

There's an entire subreddit of that shit as well. Like 70% of the romance books that have dudes with rippling 90-packs on the front aren't full of unrealistic writing of men. It's fiction. Most of the characters are probably not going to be realistic.

But muh cult evaluation theory

 

[Krokodil Overdose]

But muh cult evaluation theory

Never heard of this. Care to elaborate?

 

[Notgoodwithusernames]

Never heard of this. Care to elaborate?

cultivation theory: basically media controls the way people think. SJWs love it

 

[NNewt84]

Obligatory.

So that means he played a woman in The Shining.

 

[Revo]

i don't care about male vs female stuff,when i read literature.I just want good entertainment in literature.All male vs female stuff in books is for SJWs, Feminism, MGTOW, MRA and skecptics.

 

[NN 401]

Men writing women was funny when it was shit like dudes fixating on weirdly emotive nipples and boobs.

It stopped being funny when it became all about wrong think. Just read their take on CS Lewis’ Till We Have Faces a collaboration with his wife. Apparently, women and characters are not allowed to have antiquated beliefs or irrational thoughts even if it’s in keeping with their characters and time period.

These are the kind of whiney asses that are always going “muh Susan” whenever the Narnia Chronicles are mentioned.

Apparently, there are also “women writing men writing women” whenever a female author writes something weird. Oh and lesbian authors can do no wrong.

 

[frozenrunner]

They'll bitch if you don't write enough female characters. (Muh totally academic Bechdel Test.) They'll bitch if you do write female characters who aren't all Mary Sues.

Conclusion: tell them all to get raped, and write what you want.

 

[NNewt84]

They'll bitch if you don't write enough female characters. (Muh totally academic Bechdel Test.) They'll bitch if you do write female characters who aren't all Mary Sues.

Conclusion: tell them all to get raped, and write what you want.

I guess they must think Coraline is sexist, since its main character is a gullible kid who thinks her "other" parents are better.

Another thing that really bugs me is that every time a new female character comes out that the feminists actually like - regardless if she's a Mary Sue - they'll gush and rave about how she's "So progressive, and OMG she's such a groundbreaking character! Such a revolutionary way to write female characters!" ... just ignoring all the characters like her that came before. This happened with Mulan, this happened with Merida, this happened with Moana, and even simply making the character a tomboy is treated like it's brand new and revolutionary, as we've now seen with Yi in the upcoming Abominable film: https://toonado.com/movies/abominab...out-chloe-bennets-tomboy-protagonist-yi-a2843

Yeah, because no character was ever a tomboy until Abominable was made. Except for Punky Brewster, Mulan, Riley Anderson, Merida, Kim Possible, Mona the Vampire, CJ the DJ, and even back in the 1950s we had Little Audrey (and yes, she's the inspiration for Audrey from Harvey Street Kids, for those of you wondering). Just... how picky are these feminists that they have to resort to erasing history to promote female characters?

 

[JohnDoe]

Yeah, because no character was ever a tomboy until Abominable was made. Except for Punky Brewster, Mulan, Riley Anderson, Merida, Kim Possible, Mona the Vampire, CJ the DJ, and even back in the 1950s we had Little Audrey (and yes, she's the inspiration for Audrey from Harvey Street Kids, for those of you wondering). Just... how picky are these feminists that they have to resort to erasing history to promote female characters?

It is a combination of their actual historical ignorance, since most of them don't know the first thing about whatever particular subject they are discussing, or feminism either. For an 'academic' field of study with a bar so low you need a bathysphere to find it, most don't even bother because they are also incredibly shallow and self centered. They are focused on being the 'first' and a 'making a difference' and the delusion that their screeching on Twitter means anything falls apart when faced with the fact that women did it before them, and didn't need them.

That is the crux of it though - modern feminism is just a means of control. Control over men and society through shame and guilt, and control over women by convincing them they are powerless and need feminism. Which, as the historical examples show, is absolute bullshit. Amelia Earhart didn't need a vast multi-billion dollar academic and media complex pushing a #ShePlane narrative to become a pioneer in aviation and a total badass, she just fucking did it.

 

[TFT-A9]

THE GALBRUSH PARADOX

Consider Guybrush Threepwood, start of the Monkey Island series. He's weak, socially awkward, cowardly, kind of a nerd and generally the last person you'd think of to even cabin boy on a pirate ship, let alone captain one. He is abused, verbally and physically, mistreated, shunned, hated and generally made to feel unwanted.

Now let's say Guybrush was a girl. We'll call her Galbrush. Galbrush is weak, socially awkward, cowardly, kind of a nerd and generally the last person you'd think of to even cabin boy on a pirate ship, let alone captain one. She is abused, verbally and physically, mistreated, shunned, hated and generally made to feel unwanted.

Now, you might notice that I've given the exact same description to both of these characters. But here's where things deviate. While no one cares if Guybrush takes a pounding for being, for lack of a better term, less than ideal pirate, Galbrush will be presumed to be discriminated against because of her gender. In fact, every hardship she will endure, though exactly the same as the hardships Guybrush endured, will be considered misogyny, rather than someone being ill suited to their desired calling.

And that ending. She goes through ALL that trouble to help, let's call him Eli Marley, escape the evil clutches of the ghost piratess Le Chuck, it turns out he didn't even need her help and she even screwed up his plan to thwart Le Chuck. Why, it'd be a slap in the face to every woman who's ever picked up a controller. Not only is the protagonist inept, but apparently women make lousy villains too!

And that's why Guybrush exists and Galbrush doesn't. Men can be comically inept halfwits. Women can't. Men can be flawed, tragic human beings. Women can't. And why? Because every single female character reflects all women everywhere.

tbf I can't remember the last female character in any given book that I genuinely liked and appreciated as a well-written, nicely-rounded and complex character.

 

[Reverend]

tbf I can't remember the last female character in any given book that I genuinely liked and appreciated as a well-written, nicely-rounded and complex character.

Julie Shackleford from Monster Hunter International. Not a damsel in distress character at all but a full blown character who had backstory, plot, and motivation.


Then there's the fucked up woman Elisabeth from the Eisenhorn series in the Warhammer40k universe. Reminds me allot of a mix of Ripley and Black Widow characters.

 

[Alberto Balsalm]

Reading terrible writing is funny. If you're getting mad, you're doing it wrong.

Spoiler

These people are doing it very, very wrong.

 

[TFT-A9]

Terrible writing isn't anger-inducing, it's boring.

 

[NNewt84]

tbf I can't remember the last female character in any given book that I genuinely liked and appreciated as a well-written, nicely-rounded and complex character.

To be fair, though, when male characters are flawed, you're still going to hear cries of sexism - it just doesn't come from feminists.