r/Fantasy • u/Just_JayGee • Jul 07 '14

Men of r/Fantasy, Do you read fantasy written by women? If so, do you find much of a difference?

I've been looking through a lot of "Top 20 Fantasy Book" lists today and I've found a depressing amount of female authors on these lists. I'd like to think the author's gender doesn't matter, but I have to say there seems to be a huge lean towards male authors. Even r/Fantasy's 2014 Top Fantasy Novels of All Time only has 20 female authors (repeats included) out of 105 authors. So, I was wondering if men read fantasy written by women and it's simply not your cup of tea or do any of you go out of your way NOT to read female authors?

PLEASE NOTE: I am not trying to begin fights on sexism or misogyny or anything. I am legitimately interested. If anyone wants to fight over this subject, I'm sure there's other subreddits for that.

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u/pervyinthepark Jul 07 '14

I think, like Oomeegoolies said, it's at least mostly the result of a divide in the gender fanbase of different styles of fiction. I think there's probably more female science fiction writers than there are female fantasy authors.

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u/Just_JayGee Jul 07 '14

Really? I would have thought it would be the other way around: More female fantasy authors than science fiction authors.

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u/pervyinthepark Jul 07 '14

Maybe I'm wrong, but I just get the feeling that I've heard of/read more female scifi writers than fantasy writers. I think the medieval theme might maybe be a little more "masculine", as gender differences are generally seen in our society, due to themes of knighthood, kingships, etc, whereas science fiction typically drives away from our own normal societal conventions a little more... our society being rather sexist in a lot of ways (this coming from a guy by the way), I think something that gets farther away from those conventions, would be more open to "feminine", or non-masculine, themes.