|
|
Post by Lib on Aug 31, 2013 17:41:40 GMT -5
I'm playing with the idea of changing the villain in my novel from male to female, so I thought I'd ask for some input on how you guys choose what gender to make your characters. Some obviously have to be a certain gender to fit the storyline, but others don't really matter so much. Do you have any tips or tricks on how to decide?
|
|
|
|
Post by boomboom on Aug 31, 2013 18:02:09 GMT -5
(oops, just saw you said "villian of the story, not main character. Sorry, in a hurry.)
Well, the first question is why are you thinking of changing?
Edit add: My first thing is, if you don't have other females to balance out the villain, and I do mean balance out the female image here, then hmmm.
If it seems forced, don't do it. If you are just not used to it, try it for awhile. Try not having any gender for awhile. You can always go back and put gender specific wording or things in there later. Most of your story shouldn't be dependent on gender, right? Have you written a female main character before other than Cleiti?
My main character is female because, well, she has always been female in my head. I have never conceived of a main character that isn't female, though I have a character in my thesis script that kept taking over as the main that is a male. Also, being female was kind of intrinsic to their story. I also never played a male character in Wow. I guess I am female and not comfortable being male. No gender confusion here, contrary to popular opinion lol.
I am actually working on a article about the female image in fantasy literature. It was sparked by noticing some things in Malazan Book of the Fallen. The author, Erikson, is very intelligent and does some really interesting and enlightened things with his female characters, and understands their situation in the world better than 99% of authors, but he still fell in to views that are deeply rooted and quite common. I wrote on a similar topic when getting my masters. I took am American War Films class, one of 2 women in the class lol, and wrote my class paper on the image of women in war films. It was very interesting and I'm seeing the same things in fantasy stories.
|
|
|
|
Post by boomboom on Aug 31, 2013 18:11:29 GMT -5
Also, how would it change things in your story? People have a tendency to see males as human and females as female first then humans. That means they end up unconsciously twisting the character in ways to what they believe is female or away from things they don't want to be stereotyped.
In The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula le Guin wrote about a world where everyone was both genders. Actually, neither during most of the month but then they would go in to Kemmer(sp?) and become one or the other. It was really hard to imagine the characters without gender. Really hard. She did have to use "he" throughout because she said anything else just got in the way of reading. It is a incredibly wonderful book, btw, won the Hugo and Nebula awards. She is an exquisite writer, considered one of the best. Also, the narrator of the story was a human male.
|
|
|
|
Post by Bird on Aug 31, 2013 22:41:32 GMT -5
I haven't written much with the traditional hero/villain setup, but I think all the ones I did were male. On both sides. For my main characters in general, I think it's a pretty even split. When I get a story idea, the genders are generally part of it, and, now that I think about it, I don't remember ever changing a main character's gender once I had an idea. They're just sort of ... there already. I'm sure that's very helpful.  But, as Boomboom said, I would first question why I considered changing the gender. And unless there is a balancing female character, it could look bad. |
|
|
|
Post by Lib on Sept 12, 2013 12:33:10 GMT -5
Sorry it's taken so long to get back to this post, but for some reason I didn't get any updates to remind me, lol.
Why would I think of changing genders? Because the default gender is male, and I don't want to make all the major characters male just because that's what everyone does. Also in this society (in the story), they are so busy trying to survive that they don't have time to let women be 'delicate'. Everybody has to work, to hunt, to find food, so hopefully they are all pretty much equal as far as gender. I want to mix it up and have males and females balanced in the different roles.
The only character whose gender is set is a woman whose husband dies 3 months before their child is born. Couldn't do that the other way around. I want the main character male, because he's based on Grom Hellscream, but other than that, I just want to make sure I get a good blend going on. Maybe even surprise the readers a bit.
|
|
|
|
Post by boomboom on Oct 2, 2013 17:35:53 GMT -5
What did you decide on your villain's gender?
|
|
|
|
Post by Lib on Oct 4, 2013 16:52:22 GMT -5
Right now the villain is female. I have a minor villain who is male, and there are actually 2 'heroes' in the story: one male and one female. I'm gonna give both genders a chance to be good and bad.  |
|
|
|
Post by r.elena.t on Oct 8, 2013 11:38:38 GMT -5
I am actually working on a article about the female image in fantasy literature. It was sparked by noticing some things in Malazan Book of the Fallen. The author, Erikson, is very intelligent and does some really interesting and enlightened things with his female characters, and understands their situation in the world better than 99% of authors, but he still fell in to views that are deeply rooted and quite common. I wrote on a similar topic when getting my masters. I took am American War Films class, one of 2 women in the class lol, and wrote my class paper on the image of women in war films. It was very interesting and I'm seeing the same things in fantasy stories. Yes, yes, yes. Where is your article being published? I want to read it. |
|
|
|
Post by r.elena.t on Oct 8, 2013 11:57:42 GMT -5
Also in this society (in the story), they are so busy trying to survive that they don't have time to let women be 'delicate'. Ha. I remember from an anthro class (way back in the dark, dark ages), that in hunting-gathering societies, 80% or so of calories was procured by the women & children "gatherers." No wonder hunting had the cache'. Big beast meat was rare. 'Course, the other fun fact I remember was that no one worked more than a couple hours a day. Spent most of their time on talking, singing, and sex. Agricultural societies upped the work hours as the productive people had to support more and more "specialized" non-productive people - from rulers to artisans. |
|
|
|
Post by r.elena.t on Oct 8, 2013 11:58:26 GMT -5
Back to the gender issue: I wrote a middle-grade novel many decades ago with two, boy MCs (the story switches between their points of view... one of the boys is a dragon). A secondary character is a teenaged, female friend. Only book with only male MCs I've ever written...
But I have switched gender for a secondary character mid-story when I found myself falling into an unnecessary gender stereotype. Both male to female & female to male.
|
|
|
|
Post by boomboom on Oct 8, 2013 15:52:53 GMT -5
When the scriptwriters for the movie Alien wrote the screenplay, they decided not to give any of the characters a gender so they could be either female or male when casting came. Hence, Ridley was created - one of the best and most loved female heroes the screen has ever had.
|
|
But, as Boomboom said, I would first question why I considered changing the gender. And unless there is a balancing female character, it could look bad. 
Now, where did I leave off at?
My latest edition of Straight From Thecliff Chamber 