Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.
Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.
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Notes -
Buried in the culture war thread, there has been some discussion about differences between male and female writers, and how one might recognize the gender of a writer without knowing from the name.
Rowling supposedly writes all her male characters like they are girls. Draco is a bully in a mean girl fashion, while Harry falls in and out of love in a manner more similar to women than men. Another pointed out that male stories tend to converge on one point, whereas those written by women tend to move in many different directions. The "men writing women" tropes are also often telltale sign of author's gender.
I figured it would be fun to ask the rest here: Do you see different trends in how men and women write, and do you believe you can reliably tell the gender of a writer from their works alone?
I read a lot of web serials, which I would estimate are >95% male written (the Royal Road kind, not the fanfic or gay romance kind).
One thing I can say for certain is that if there is a female protagonist, she will always be a lesbian, or "bisexual" but basically all romance is with other women. I assume this is because it's icky to imagine a man hitting on your character, but it does get a bit ridiculous.
I don't know if this applies to professionally published works, I would assume not.
It is not. At least most fantasy I grew up with, the default orientation has been straight and monogamous, regardless of the protagonist's gender. I believe in recent years there has been a trend towards more LGBT content, but that is politics rather than wish fulfillment.
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