greyias | (no subject)

Late last night, about 18K into my Big Bang monster, I realized something that made me stop and boggle a little: There's a startling lack of female characters in my cast.

I think there have been maybe three females that have cropped up in the entire fic, and they've all been minor bit characters: one a waitress, one a secretary, and the HR director. When I looked at that, I squirmed a little, because no, that's not stereotypical at all.

Then the more I thought about it, the more unsettled I became. Honestly, I don't think many people would be reading it and suddenly go "Hey wait! Where are all the women? This is crap!". (Who does that, though?) However it started thinking about the stuff I've written in the past, and how many stories (both fic and original) where I have a woman with a strong lead role -- and I've kind of come up short. I mean, I have one long series of original stories in my head that's told by a female, but I don't think it counts seeing as it's not on paper.

But now I'm just kind of wondering, idly what this says about me. Obviously, it's something I need to work on in the future, along with more setting and character description. I do seem to have a much harder time climbing into female characters' heads than my guys, but is that because they're so much more fleshed out? Or is it because it's that much harder to write a female character that's accepted for who she is without being accused of being a Mary Sue?

Oh, well. I'm sure at least one or two more women will pop up in the course of the story. Maybe I'll write some Teyla fic or something as penance after all of this is done.

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Yes, I do actually read books and notice when there are few or no women. This started in grad school, when a prof announced, "In the whole of The Canterbury Tales, there isn't a single scene where two women speak to each other in direct discourse." I went holy frack--how could I not have noticed? I'd first read the CT as as sophomore in college! I'd have to modify her statement a little, actually; in the Franklin's Tale, Canacee has a long conversation with a female bird, using a magic ring to communicate with the bird. But two human women? Nope. Never happens. (Women do talk to each other in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, but there's almost no direct discourse between them again!)

So I notice these things. I think I've done okay in my own fic, but I have also found myself very reluctant to create female OC's because, as you say, I don't want to write a Mary Sue, and I don't want to write a non-Mary Sue who gets mistaken for one! I think my original female characters have been rather poorly fleshed out because I shy away from them a bit. Of course, my male OCs aren't any great shakes either.

I find it easiest to write for the characters I've gotten from the show. I do like to write Sam, and occasionally Janet, but I have trouble with SGA: I'm not exactly sure what to do with Teyla or Elizabeth! I've written Kate Heightmeyer in two stories, and I thought I got her pretty well, but a couple of my commenters have told me they like my version much better than the one on the show! Um, but I thought I was writing the one on the show! (I also got one of those comments about Gwen in my one Torchwood story: "I wish the show writers wrote her like this." Okayyyy.)

I guess this is long-winded agreement that the show doesn't give us the same depth of characterization with female characters, and I think we as women and writers want to do better than that but are afraid of messing it up.

But sometimes, a story comes to you that's just a guy story. You can write--what? Not a girl story, certainly not a chick story--some female equivalent later.

PS I'm also not sure of what to make of the fact that, of the six icons I get as a total freeloader on LJ, I have:
Jack and Daniel
Rodney and Carson
me and Weird Al Yankovic (yay!)
a helmet (male armor, definitely)
two depictions of me as a warrior queen

I generally use J&D for comments on SG-1 fandom and R&C for SGA, but when I'm replying to posts on or stories about Sam, or Teyla, or Elizabeth, I'm not always sure whether to use the guys or not!

My only female icons are me! Does that mean I'm a narcissist? (Disclaimer: you couldn't actually use either of them to pick me out of a line-up. :-) )

Hey, with only six icons you got to be picky! There's a neat little trick, I think I heard it from friendshipper, where you can use "general" keywords to name your icons and swap them out if you get to your max. Of course, I just keep buying up icon space because I don't have to pay rent, so the money needs to go somewhere.

(Disclaimer: you couldn't actually use either of them to pick me out of a line-up. :-) )

Drat! There goes that brilliant idea.

I remember hearing that about "Canterbury Tales"! I never was able to get too far into it because I really struggle with old English. The women definitely get the short stick in classic literature. Heck, there were only like two women in Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein", and they were pretty much background. I don't recall them having many interactions within the story, but I think the main focus of the book was more of the undead monster.

Teyla is hard, man, and I respect anyone who can get into her head. Elizabeth I can only really tackle if I approach her from a "Mom" perspective, which makes me feel a little sad because she was the expedition's leader, not their mother. But yes, I know what you mean about those comments. You're basing a character on what you see in the show; they just might be tuning into a different program it seems sometimes ;)

Often the stories that come to me are still male-centric, even my original stuff. Most of them feature a strong friendship between two male characters, going through the plot together. One day I'll take up the charge of the female cause--after Big Bang.

For some reason, male friendship gives me warm fuzzies in a way that female friendship doesn't. Don't know why, but it affects my writing and, often, my reading.