On writing women characters

[neadods]

The authors I internet-stalk have been doing a fair amount of discussing how to write women as characters at the moment. And if there was one thing that I'd love to get into the conversation, it is this:

Stop using tits as a shorthand for femininity. More than that, stop using how women dress their upper bodies as a shorthand for how they feel about their sexuality. (I'm looking at you, Byatt. You should have known better.)

Here's a handy hint for the Y-enabled authors reading this blog:

Women don't think about their breasts very often.

Seriously, once you've grown them, figured out your overall dressing style and found a bra you like, the whole boob thing is pretty much a done deal. In general day-to-day life, the overall chestal concern isn't "how do I feel about my tits?" It's "is this bra going to behave?" And I don't mean "Will it lift, separate, and present my apparatus to advantage?" I mean "18 Hour Comfort my ass; this damned thing's riding up/falling down/digging in/falling off my shoulders a-fucking-gain!" (Spend a day in a dance belt, boys, and see how long it takes you to stop caring what's in it and start obsessing on comfort.)

And besides... was the gender of your characters changed, would you really be writing things like "Jack dressed to the left to show his confidence today"?

Even the girliest of girls is going to think about her hair and nails more than her mammaries. After all, the first two are in plain sight at all times, while her breasts aren't. Boobs don't require a lot of maintenance, after all. They don't need to be filed, trimmed, or polished, and are far less likely to kink in odd directions if you sleep on them wet.

Oh, things are different if the scene is specifically about sexuality. (Scott Wentworth once wrote with remarkable surprise that both his leading ladies adjusted their bodices while singing the line "weapons ready" in Enter the Guardsman. What was he expecting?) But on a day to day basis? When other people aren't making a big deal out of them?

We. Don't. Care.

I just had to get that off my chest.

Comments

[lyricwrites.livejournal.com]

Possibly just me, then, because I have not only acquired welts from underwires, I have had them poke through the cloth and stab me. I do buy bras with underwires, but then I perform immediate surgery with a pair of scissors.

[stephani673.livejournal.com]

"I have had them poke through the cloth and stab me"

Oh, I hate that. I was up to a B cup in junior high, a C and then D by high school, and I'm small enough that they just look obscene.

Strangely enough, the poking-through problem stopped once I hit DD.

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

If you're getting welts and pokes from underwires, the bra isn't the right size - it's not unusual to wear a slightly different size in underwires vs soft cups. The underwires should lie flat against your body, with the join between the cups flat against your sternum.

[lyricwrites.livejournal.com]

Something about my body shape seems to make that very difficult to manage, but I'll keep it in mind the next time I go bra shopping. (Which won't be for another year or so, I hope. Darn things cost a king's ransom, so I wear them until they fall apart.)

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

The Bravissimo Perfect Fit Guide has a video showing what a poor vs good fit that might help you figure out what to look for next time you go shopping.

[lyricwrites.livejournal.com]

Thanks!