I've always been rather fascinated with how men write women and vice versa. It seems quite logical that we like thinking about the opposite sex and wondering what they are thinking. Not to mention the potential that we can see something, as an outsider, about the other side that they wouldn't have noticed on their own. Especially in movies I can think of a bunch that rather glorify women and/or bemoan their plight that were written by men.
Of course the other side to this is people complaining that the writing isn't too realistic, both when women write men and when men write women. Or that there are at least certain mistakes or shortcomings in description that happen a lot (blabla, the often cited Madonna/whore thing).
I think the certain female identity crisis is that there usually is more male written media out there and it's easier to see and emulate it. And while males do write powerful and popular women (Joss Whendon/Buffy comes to mind, JJ Abrahms/Felicity&Sydney), male writers also write a lot of male centered things (I'm thinking about the whole Dawson's Creek section of "growing up" stories).
Maybe it would be an interesting thing to study, females created by male writers, males created by male writers, females created by female writers and males created by female writers (JRK Rowling and Harry Potter comes to mind; seems at least to me that boys have no trouble identifying with him or liking him even though he is written by a woman).
I'm not equipped to say what women can or can't believe without going crazy, though.
I guess it boils down to the whole "women supposedly ore critical on other women than men" thing. Sometimes it just comes off as pretty self-hating.
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Date: 2007-02-13 09:18 pm (UTC)Of course the other side to this is people complaining that the writing isn't too realistic, both when women write men and when men write women. Or that there are at least certain mistakes or shortcomings in description that happen a lot (blabla, the often cited Madonna/whore thing).
I think the certain female identity crisis is that there usually is more male written media out there and it's easier to see and emulate it. And while males do write powerful and popular women (Joss Whendon/Buffy comes to mind, JJ Abrahms/Felicity&Sydney), male writers also write a lot of male centered things (I'm thinking about the whole Dawson's Creek section of "growing up" stories).
Maybe it would be an interesting thing to study, females created by male writers, males created by male writers, females created by female writers and males created by female writers (JRK Rowling and Harry Potter comes to mind; seems at least to me that boys have no trouble identifying with him or liking him even though he is written by a woman).
I'm not equipped to say what women can or can't believe without going crazy, though.
I guess it boils down to the whole "women supposedly ore critical on other women than men" thing. Sometimes it just comes off as pretty self-hating.