Is writing gender neutral?
By this question I mean whether readers like books independently of the author’s gender, and whether authors can write books independent of their gender? The second applies to any creative artist—indeed, it applies to any occupation. I have some progressive opinions about that. The first is subjective and might inspire some comments to this post.
Recently I heard that WNBA players are second-class citizens compared to NBA players (of course, I long suspected that). The former share 25% of the profits; the latter 50%. WNBA rookies start at about $44K. You can imagine what some NBA rookies start at!
This is common in many occupations. While CEOs now make 300 times what their average employees do (talk about earnings gap!), female employees make less than their male counterparts in general, CEOs included.
I’m an equal opportunity and equal pay for equal work fan. I don’t have stats on journalists, but I believe fiction reading is gender neutral. I think most readers are like me: we just like a good story, no matter who writes it. In fact, I pay no attention to the gender, religion, political proclivities, and so forth of the author as long as the story’s good.
In my book buying, I look for good stories. Although I market my own books, I’ll admit authors’ marketing efforts don’t have much effect on me. They might move me to look at the book’s page on Amazon for its blurb and “peek inside,” or do the same at a bookstore. If the author’s advertising has some serious review excerpts (hint: too many reviews are zero content, especially on Amazon), that might help the author’s cause, but it’s not likely.
You can see that my book purchases have nothing to do with the author’s gender, religion, politics, and so forth. Genre(s) and other keywords might influence me too (I don’t read fluff, which nixes bodice rippers, fifty shades of anything, and cat mysteries).
In fact, there are more female readers than male, so I wouldn’t be surprised that there are more female writers than male (the one doesn’t follow the other, of course). I certainly read more female writers than male writers (again, I’m not sure there’s any correlation, but it’s a personal fact).
There’s a tendency for protagonists to be male, but I think that gender bias is disappearing. After all, the male protagonist saving the damsel in distress from the clutches of the villain sounds like a silent movie, right? Yet Hollywood often still follows that model! My own stories tend to be a bit biased the other way. I have no problem with a smart, strong woman as protagonist because I’ve know quite a few who can serve as models for those kind of characters.
I don’t know if there are gender biases at publishing companies. Maybe at the top? I don’t know why there would be either, considering the last comments, but these companies might be similar to all the others. (I remember a stereotypical episode of Mike and Molly where Molly confronts a publishing editor…typical and hilarious!). I worked in scientific R&D where there was definitely gender bias. Some of that might be due to parents and teachers giving credence to the debunked theory that girls aren’t good STEM students. That’s malarkey, of course, and I never propagated that myth when I was a professor…or with my own kids.
Let me end this little essay by stating that your gender doesn’t affect your ability to write a good story. The three steps to good writing are create, edit, and persevere. Your gender doesn’t affect any of those steps. It might affect other things like choice of genre, but not that basic trinity. While I try to remember an author’s name whose books I like, that first choice of her or his books is independent of gender. I read for the story.
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Rembrandt’s Angel. Mystery, thrills, and romance await the reader of this novel. Scotland Yard Inspector Esther Brookstone is trying to decide whether Interpol Agent Bastiann van Coevorden will become husband #4 as she becomes obsessed with recovering a Rembrandt painting stolen by the Nazis in World War Two. As the case morphs into an international conspiracy, the two become closer as they battle neo-Nazis, a drug cartel, and ISIS. Available in ebook format from Amazon and Smashwords and all the latter’s affiliated retailers, as well as print format at Amazon or your local bookstore (if they don’t have it, ask for it). Ideal for later summer and fall reading.
In libris libertas!
