Poll: Writer gender & protagonist gender

How about male or female author - male and female protagonists?
My current book has both a male and a female protagonist, so for me, it's a little difficult to cast a vote.

 

Just in general Nobody writes every single character as having the same gender across all of their work, but I've noticed that I have more major female protagonists/antagonists than major male or non-binary protagonists/antagonists.

 

As a male writer, I almost exclusively write female leads. I think it comes from the days when I read mostly classic literature and found good female characters incredibly few and far between, and I wanted to fill in the gaps.

Obviously more contemporary stuff has a much better balance, but I’ve formed a habit now and don’t have any real desire to break it

 

I am a non-binary writer who usually has a non-binary protagonist. Back when I was female, I found myself wrapped up in writing a story with a male protagonist. Now that I know who I am, I like to write characters who have gone through the same pronoun transition as me. One side project I have is all about gender transitioning, but in my other projects, the protagonist's gender(s) isn't a big detail.

 

I confess despite I being the opposite sex of the majority of the characters I write, male, that doesn't mean female characters are excluded. I am more concern to write compelling characters, exploring their background, finding unique features, and the list goes on

 

Well, I was born genetically male with a number of female attributes, I suppose that gives me an intimate perspective into non-binary people. The main character in my most recent stories has basically the same condition; male but largely female in appearance, and - like me, he's non-binary in his fashion sense as well.

 

Can you stop being so beautiful?

Actually, no. Don't. Carry on!

 

Thank you so much.

 

This one's tricky. In terms of distinct characters, I've got twice as many male protagonists as female protagonists. But this is because most of my stories feature the same recurring female protagonist. Factor that in, and I think female protagonists just barely have the edge for me.

 

I think that's how I'd handle it too?

 

So the votes from top to bottom so far are (4,0,8,0,2,0,12,1,4)

• 12 authors are female
• 2 authors are non-binary
• 17 authors are male

And there's an interesting pattern so far:

• 28/29 binary authors (12/12 women and 16/17 men) primarily write binary characters
• But 20/28 binary authors who primarily write binary characters (8/12 women and 12/16 men) primarily write characters of the opposite binary gender from their own

Whereas

• 2/2 non-binary authors said they primarily write non-binary characters

That said, @DK3654 's point still stands about "binary authors who write the opposite binary" potentially being more likely to respond to the poll in the first place than "binary authors who write the same binary"

 

I find female characters much more interesting to write about and in my current work, there are three women protagonists who are all strong, but in different ways.
I'm not sure why this is, but the words seem to flow for them, much more fluidly.

 

Male writer and, if forced to chose, male protagonists. I say if forced to chose because lately, my stories are about casts of characters. My recent reading habits have clearly played a part in this. The casts are as diverse as feels natural to me, but if I'm made to point out a key protagonist, I would say said person is usually male.

 

Female author. Three female (AI, soldier, science officer), four male characters (captain, deaf soldier, and two aliens) and one non-binary (construct).

 

If I can make a female protagonist that works, I'll have her be part of the main cast. Generally, I'll make the main protagonist male just because I can identify the best with that.

 

Female writer who prefers male protagonists. Male characters have usually been my favorite from whatever book/movie/TV show my whole life (for the most part). I think that translates into my writing. I'd rather write a male than a female character.

 

Can I ask why that might be? I'm curious.
For me, I think I've shifted toward female characters because it helps me separate myself from the characters easily, because I find it a little more interesting to try writing another gender, and I like how female characters work.

 

Male writer here. I mostly write female protagonists, and that's been a conscious decision. As the writer of a fantasy world, I find myself inheriting the Conundrum of Omipotence, to wit: nothing happens that I don't explicitly make happen, and nothing fails to happen that I don't explicitly refuse to allow to happen. Therefore, the society in my work didn't just "evolve" this way; I created it specifically this way. And my badass wizard/knight/fool/giant-hedgehog-rider/etc wasn't "born" a straight white male, didn't just "happen" to be a straight white male, I made him that way. And 99% of the time, being straight, or white, or male is totally irrelevant to the story I'm telling.

So I create societies based on what I want them to be (instead of just recycling a medieval England knock-off chock full of the exact same kinds of oppression that happens here for no good plot reason), and I specifically choose to make my main characters the kind of person who gets fewer chances to be a badass in the real world.

Obviously, when I'm writing something that's set in this world, I'm more limited, because I don't actually know what it's like to be a woman, or LGBTQ, or a minority who's lived in this society, and I'm worried I couldn't pull it off without being either patronizing, offensive, or both. But a fantasy world? To the void with it; the experience of a woman or a minority or an LGBTQ person in my fantasy world is exactly what I want it to be, which means there's no reason NOT to include them.

I've been trying to experiment with trans/non-binary characters lately, because, again, why not give them a chance to be badasses too? I just hadn't thought of it as much as I might should have prior to now.

Of course, it's also important to me that the characters' gender/race/orientation/etc is not a major big deal. It just is; it doesn't need its own triumphant subplot or deep philosophical dialogue or shocking reveal, or create surprise in side characters a la: "But you're a woman! How could you have accomplished this thing??". Not only does that come across as heavy-handed, it also defeats my own purpose: to allow everyone to be their own unfettered badass.*




---
*That idea got thrust into my brain the first time I sat down and watched a couple of episodes of Dr. Who. In that season, two of the main characters were in an interracial relationship, and nobody ever said anything about it. In America, that sort of pairing requires (by law, possibly?) at least an entire episode devoted to the struggles and travails of being a black man married to a white woman, in addition to tiny little subplots in every other episode ever. It blew my mind, man. Psssshew!

 

Honestly, I don't know. I could think of several potential reasons why, but I don't really think I could pin it down exactly.

 

I seem to be able to write both male and female characters equally. I like my male characters because they, generally, have more complex personalities, my female characters have better emotional range, so it balances out.

 

The poll isn't "and who do you write?" the poll is "and who do you write the most?"

I talked in the 5th post about how I write a lot of male and female characters, but how the preference for female characters is still noticeable:

Also,

I don't understand how that wouldn't count.

 

... Are you deliberately missing the point?