" I do agree with him that male characters tend to be given a wider range of types and backgrounds than female characters in culture. "
But it's not because women are any less flexible on the roles that can be written. Good writers have written many sorts of different women characters. Also most of his arguments or examples are irrelevant to writing good novels.
Stan Lee? What deep character development compared to a good novel. The US Comic books are like story boards for movies. They are a particular art form. They are not novels.
Star Wars? Not a about writing. Whether Rey is a "Mary Sue" or not is irrelevant to writing characters in novels.
Harrison Ford had something to say 40 years ago about Lucas's ability to write dialogue and dialogue is a major part of a character.
Also actual novels may have narration and what the character is thinking, quite commonly, the Graphic Novels/US Comics less so and movies hardly at all.
The article is almost pointless drivel:
Quote:
|
In doing so, I have noticed something that’s both distinct and frustrating. It’s something I think every writer, including the Stan Lees and J.K. Rowlings of the world, have noticed at some point. When it comes to creating great characters, there’s a lot of flexibility when it comes to male characters. With female characters, though, there are too many unwritten rules to keep track of.
|
This seems to be the central point he's trying to illustrate.
There may be loads of comics, films and books where the implementation of the woman is offensive and thus in his words "rules" where not kept.
But there are plenty of simply offensively written books, which may be otherwise enjoyable (Lead male in Ian Fleming, Clive Cussler's books).
J.K Rowling is successful, but 10s of thousands of writers do characters, plot, story, dialogue better. Did Stan Lee write novels? Not really
Quote:
|
American comic book writer, editor, publisher, and producer. He rose through the ranks of a family-run business called Timely Publications which would later become Marvel Comics.
|
He's an irrelevant example, and so is J. Rowlings (the K was invented by publisher!) to writers developing characters in novels.
Men or women can write good female or male characters in novels or bad ones. Any limitation of a fictional woman is imaginary. Of course there are character designs of women that are obnoxious to women. There are also ones that annoy some men. But there are plenty of books just with obnoxious characters, or that are just nasty books.
Having a woman or female MC is no limitation at all to a good writer.