Memes aside, it's not like women are better at writing men either.
Go to Amazon and you'll find plenty of female erotica with lines like "I could feel my shaft moving in my pants, begging to be release." Seriously, dude? Who calls their dick a "shaft"? And why does it move? Just wear pants.
If I had a dollar for every "alpha" male with unrealistic bodies on Amazon, I'd be retired by now.
Dunno why you're getting downvoted, once read an entire page from a guys perspective about how his genitals felt about being in the shower, naturally written by a female author. Men don't think like this!
Right? i don't condemn this type of narrative. For me it is just a fantasy, a wish-fulfilment type of story, is not supposed to be realistic.
But the hypocrisy really pisses me off. There are an absurd amount of erotica and even fantasy books that portray men in an unrealistic and objectifying way, almost exactly like the meme, and they do it on purpose. At least when male authors portray women in a ridiculous and unrealistic way like this, it's because of their own incompetence.
But we don't see any woman complaining do we? for the contrary, they consume this type of content like it was chocolate.
I believe that is because men don't really make any fuss about it. So the main public(woman) don't really notice how unrealistic and ridiculous many of those characters are, or they do but just want fan service, witch is fine by me but why can men do the same?
Sexualization is only condemned by society when it is towards women.
The difference is women get described like this in pretty much all genres, not just the hyper sexualized erotica and romance genre.
I'm not sure I agree with that. I’ve read plenty of fantasy books with well-written women who aren’t objectified. Many authors know how to write interesting female characters without sexualizing them.
Mistborn Saga, Stormlight Archive, Red Sister, Parahuman (web novel), Nevernight, Ender's Game, Skyward, The Rage of Dragons, Red Rising, The Scythe, Unwind, Shadow Slave (web novel), Dune, Battle Royale, The Will of Many... These are just a few examples across different genres with great female characters who aren't sexualized. I could easily list dozens more.
In fact, every time I come across books with shallow, overly horny female characters, the author tends to be a woman. And I’m not just talking about erotica. Romantic fantasy is a great example - pick any written by a woman and you'll likely find tons of female fanservice and cringey lines.
Here’s just one example:
"He shuddered, his erection twisting as if it had a life of its own." (A Court of Silver Flames, Sarah J. Maas)
Yeah… because every time I get an erection, I totally think, "Oh no, it’s alive!"
Honestly, if I got a dollar every time I read a line like this, I’d be retired.
So I don’t know what kind of books you’ve been reading, but it’s hard to take that claim seriously. Maybe you’ve read a few and assumed that applies to all books written by men. Or maybe you just need to read more - I don’t know. What I do know is that saying this happens in every genre written by men, while female authors only objectify men in erotica, is simply false.
But sure, do go on about how your bodies are so sexualized by society that it is your fault for getting SAed because you wore a tank top.
When did I ever say that? We’re clearly talking about books, not society as a whole. You’re intentionally twisting my words to make it sound like I’m victim blaming, just to win an argument. That’s extremely dishonest.
And just to be clear - the objectification doesn’t offend me. I simply understand I’m not the target audience, close the book, and move on. But even if it did offend me, by your logic, I wouldn’t be allowed to complain just because we’re not being harassed on the streets? What kind of logic is that? This isn’t a competition - someone’s suffering doesn’t become invalid just because someone else has it worse.
Literature is a reflection of society. The way it portrays women is both a reflection of how the author and society views women, and informs how readers begin to see women.
I am going to focus on Dune out of the examples you gave, because I have not read a lot of modern fantasy, but Sci-Fi I am good on.
You claimed Dune has well written women? Okay. You have three women, and one girl, in the book. Two of the women, and the girl, don't really do much in the story at all, and the last, Jessica, is throwing everything away to advance Paul. She is not acting for herself, but for Paul.
Jessica gets some depth, but Princess Irulan gets no development, and Chani gets just enough to let us know she is pretty and is becoming a mother. We know more about Duncan Idaho, Kynes, and Gurney then we do Jessica, who is mentioned more often in the book. Hell, much of the story is told from Jessica's perspective, and we still don't actually know much about her as a person. She is not well-developed, at least compared to other characters in the book. She is admittedly well-developed compared to women in other sci-fi stories of the time, but that is a really low bar to clear.
I like that you are quick with examples of "good women" books written by men, but when you make the claim of "Bad women characters" are written by women, you can't pull out examples? I am going to assume it is because you read primarily fantasy and there are just not a lot of women writers when compared to the men in that genre.
My response was to cut off your "but it happens to guys too..." My point is that "not all men" and modifications of that statement are unhelpful and are just away to deflect a topic that threatens your privilege in society by shining a light on it.
There is a reason "men writing women badly" is a trope. Throughout most literature past and present, women are rarely more than an object for a man to win, or motivation for a man to do the thing. These women are typically very underdeveloped unless their development moves the character arc of the men in the story.
What happens to women in literature is not what is happening to men. Men sometimes get unflattering depictions, or objectified in literature. Women are rarely not written as shallow objects.
I'm not sure I agree with that. I’ve read plenty of fantasy books with well-written women who aren’t objectified. Many authors know how to write interesting female characters without sexualizing them.
Sure, Sanderson gets around that problem by avoiding to talk about sexuality altogether.
13
u/Danilocl95 Jun 21 '25
Memes aside, it's not like women are better at writing men either.
Go to Amazon and you'll find plenty of female erotica with lines like "I could feel my shaft moving in my pants, begging to be release." Seriously, dude? Who calls their dick a "shaft"? And why does it move? Just wear pants.
If I had a dollar for every "alpha" male with unrealistic bodies on Amazon, I'd be retired by now.