Dear Author: Men Who Write Women and Women Who Hate Reading That

[neadods]

I've now read two books for RtE but cannot find a way to write the review without going off on a long, angry tangential rant, because both books have one huge problem - the male authors have written a female main character that this female doesn't recognize as a member of her species, much less her gender.

There's a movie example. That Jackie Chan/Owen Wilson wild west thing? Hi-freakin'-larious... while I watched it. Then I stayed for the credits and realized that Chan's Indian "wife" didn't even get a character name. She was "Indian bride." That appalled me enough to look back at the rest of the movie and realize that while she was the woman who SAVED THEIR ASSES MORE THAN ONCE, was always left to sleep in the woods while the boys bonded in a hotel or was left behind on the trail as they ran away like chickens and finally was literally handed from one man to the other and liked it.

Written by a man, folks. If a woman wrote that, it would end with scalps drying in the Nevada wind.

The first book was just like that - really funny until I started framing the review in my mind and started going "wait a minute." Wait a minute - how come it's this woman's "purpose" to rescue this slobby guy - He's a damned adult, he can rescue his own ass! Wait a minute, if every *guy* can see what potential she has, how come she's insecure enough to act on it until a guy shows her the way? Wait a minute, if she's so smart, how come everyone else plays her like a violin? Wait a minute, why do all the hilariously humiliating things happen to her? Wait a minute, why is this woman ballsy enough to argue a case weighted heavily against her client and win, but so determined to be "nice" that she can't tell her fiancee that he's asking her to eat food she not only doesn't like, she's violently allergic to?

Wait a minute, there is no way I can tell a genre with a primarily female readership that this is a funny book without warning them that the humor is totally at their expense.

The second book was doing a LOT better, and even when you take into account what I'm about to say, it has a great plot and the men are written well. Since it's about intrigue in the Catholic church there's good reason why the cast is 99.99% male, and that works fine.

But then he has to throw in the love interest. She's a female reporter who doesn't deal well with restrictions. She's been kicked out of so many good jobs that she's so desperate to get back into a solid career that she'll be easy to manipulate with the temptation of insider access.

Now, as a trope, the stupidly ambitious reporter doesn't bother me. That said reporter has become the ghost writer for a renegade priest as her ticket back to fame doesn't bother me.

That she sleeps with the priest bothers me intensely, and it has nothing to do with Catholic celibacy. I'm sorry, author, but only a guy is that casual about sex, because every woman knows that if she bangs her source, SHE HAS INSTANTLY AND PERMANENTLY DESTROYED ALL CREDIBILITY. It's the double standard, author dear: as far as the wide world is concerned, a man who fucks around is manly, while a woman who fucks around is a desperate whore. Any realistic female character would at least *worry* that the secret would get out and ruin her. This one didn't notice that she was shooting herself in the foot.

And damnit, otherwise you had a great book there.

Comments

[neutronjockey.livejournal.com]

the male authors have written a female main character that this female doesn't recognize as a member of her species, much less her gender.

I think this is what has sprung so many initiatives in the Fantasy and Paranorm/Romance genre to bring about Women-driven novels where the main female character(s) is/are not Conan with DD cups or quirkly second-string sidekicks. Maybe mystery and thrillers should do the same (outside of Harl/Sil Bombshell imprint)?
-=Jeff=-

[neadods.livejournal.com]

There are plenty of female-written, relatively realistic mystery heroines outside of Harlequin and the Bombshell series books. So I don't think there's necessarily a genre-wide backlash going on so much as a couple of authors simply Not Getting It. In one case, he's using all the old insulting cliches, while the other one simply should have left out one appalling, bookbreaking scene.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

For once, we are on very different pages about something, namely Shanghai Noon. I read the subplot about the Indian woman as (1) the audience is in on the secret of how incompetent the boys are and how they keep needing to be rescued by *gasp!* a WOMAN, but the boys themselves just Don't Get It; and (2) the woman ultimately rejects the choice of husband her father made for her, and picks the one SHE wants.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I might have gone for that if they'd bothered to give the character a name - but they didn't. She was nothing, a plot point in a bra. They didn't even bother giving the role to someone who could act (as her one and only line proved.)

[flaviarassen.livejournal.com]

Am I being wimpy by saying that you're both right?
I think it's entirely possible and probable that the writers
DID use her in exactly the way starcat_jewel says - BUT that
they ALSO didn't care that much about her because she was a
female. She wasn't a full character, she was a plot device.

[elasg.livejournal.com]

Oooo... Now you've discovered my pet peeve in fiction!