I fully agree with Mr Weaver’s assessment of the … ahem … advice, but would like to add that I do think it’s useful in one regard: it’s a handy checklist for making a nice stereotypical and generic western culture male. Picking & choosing up to 2/3 of those traits WOULD yield a decent societal expectation of a man & work for a throw away character’s surface gender expression. The full list can be used to get the kinds of guy “Bro Country” is about and the guys who identify with it try to emulate, but please note even here it ought to be exterior characteristics … not internal reality … of a character who will be unimportant and non-lasting.
To use the advice for its intended purpose would be a terrible and sexist idea unless you’re writing satire, parody, or other comedy.
Today I want to talk about stereotypes in fiction. Specifically, I want to talk about stereotypes in writing characters’ behavior.
Yesterday, I happened upon a blog post with advice on how to write ‘realistic male characters’ — you know, fictional people who speak and behave the way men speak and behave in real life.
So… You probably already know that I’m not in favor of any pigeonholing of people — real or fictional — based on sex. gender, race, age, species… If I go on a bloggish rant when I see some fantasy story where the author says ‘All gnomes think alike and act alike’ — people who are entirely fictional — why should I have no opinion about stereotyping half of the human species in a similar way?
I’m sure the author of that article meant well and was just trying to help women who write male POV characters. Still… There would be quite justifiable outrage if someone were…
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