Is my story too male-orientated?

Hi all,

I'm in the process of finalising ideas for my novel. It is set in a fantasy-type world with medieval structures, it's very typical in many regards of a game of thrones world, with differences that I think will make it unique.

One thing that is bothering me however, is my lack of female characters that I have invested time in creating. This isn't on purpose. it's just that the laws of the society I have created are similar to our own medieval period, where women were in many ways considered to be subservient to men (obvious disclaimer, this does not reflect my real world views!).

Now I've been debating on adding a female protagonist, but my problem is that I don't want it to feel forced, like I am adding an extra character purely to balance out the genders, and I don't want to fall victim to writing my medieval-style story from a progressive 2020-style outlook, if that makes sense.

I look at Arya Stark as an example. A great character in GoT, who turned out to be a real badass. But creating an Arya-type character wasn't something I had in mind, and I don't want it to detract from my main plot focus.

I guess my question is, in the modern world, would readers be turned off by a male-dominated plot?

I don't intend for this to be controversial in any way, I'm just looking for the opinions of fellow writers and book lovers!

 

I wouldn't worry about it. You wouldn't be the first and certainly won't be the last to have an all-male main cast, and there's no point in adding a female protagonist for the sake of it. However, if you do want to, you could try and work them into the story, but you should make them an integral part, otherwise it will seem obvious that they are an add-on character.

 

It depends on your intended audience. John Norman, years ago, wrote the Gor series specifically for a male audience. There were female characters but if you've ever read any of them, you know they are definitely not equals. It sold like hotcakes because he knew what his target audience wanted.

 

1) Women have held roles just as important as men throughout history. If not the same role, men and women have lived side by side and always influenced each other.

2) Even if a woman is not the king, the knight or the soldier, she might be the queen, the wife, the mother, the scribe, the priestess. Why does this limit your ability to craft good characters?

3) If men see women as subservient, it already makes compelling women characters because they have a conflict with the society they're born into.

5) Don't hamfist a Mary-Sue badass who is beautiful, beloved and practically perfect in every way (except for her troubled past) into the story to balance out the male/female divide. You want well-written female characters, right?

So ask yourself first. Your book - what's it about? Is it dominated by combat, adventure, or domestic intrigue?

Now note the role of women in historical settings. It is not as black and white as you may think.

Women have played a massive role in politics and intrigue through history, as women have long had great power over households. How many empress dowagers have there been in history? Read stories of women who have dominated courts, defended castles, etc. to see how they have long taken a leading role in shaping events.

Women have had a similar impact to men when it comes to political intrigue. They raised and influenced children and husbands, controlled the ear of their husbands in fact - dismissing courtiers is one instance. The lord/king's household would be held together by all manner of people, and the lord's wife could dismiss people who displeased her which was a big deal.

Also, note that men didn't spend a massive amount of time at court in the first place. When they're away, power moves to the women. And what happens when a man dies? His wife takes power, if the heir is too young.

In many respects, then, women had the same power as men. Here are a few examples from the tradition of Western Europe/England for women you could take some inspiration from.

-Matilda of Tuscany, (famous for her military campaigns)

-Eleanor of Aquitaine

-Isabella of France

-Queen Elizabeth I

-Anne Boleyn

-Nicola De La Haye


On the other hand, if your story is more oriented towards adventure than political/domestic intrigue - consider that in the pre-industrial era, women had more versatile roles and performed jobs similar to men (hunt/farm) than they do today. They were not locked in the kitchen through the lens of modern prejudice.

 

Well my first novel (War/Sci-fi) seemed to be liked by anyone that read the whole thing
and not just a rando chunk. Though it helps if you don't make every male character a
macho pig.
So I think it all depends on how your characters come off in the story more than anything
else.

 

I think this is one of those situations where what you do matters less than how you do it.

So in your fictional society, women are treated as inferior to men. What do you say about that? See, it's not wrong to write a setting like that, but you'll need a justification for why you made that particular choice, and if you're writing fantasy you can't fall back on historical accuracy. So, it's reasonable to assume that you chose to write a story in which women are discriminated against either because you had something to say about that or because that simply appeals to you or because you actually don't know how to write female empowerment in the first place. (Obviously, you want it to be the first one out of those three.)

So, how are you coding it? You could use it to implicitly state that the male dominance of their society is foolish and counter-productive, have men consistently underestimate women who do try to think for themselves, give examples of how their biases are wrong, etc. This doesn't have to be a major aspect of the plot or anything, but could be a prevalent theme.

On the other hand, you might imply - if only by accident - that those biases are totally fine, it's just how their society works and it's not a problem. Let's just ignore the boring womenfolk and focus on these manly dudes stabbing each other with swords. If your story ends up coded that way, you can expect to get called out on it.

This may sound a bit harsh, but nobody cares. As far as literary criticism is concerned, the intentions of the author is irrelevant to the reading of the text.

If your story can be interpreted to have sexist, anti-feminist subtext, then it doesn't matter that you didn't put it there on purpose. It's not like you'll be able to explain yourself to all your readers, nor should you need to.

I'd be more concerned about the fact that you are apparently struggling to add just one female protagonist, never mind her role and characterization. That fails the Bechdel Test on the very first criteria.

As for making her "Arya-like", writing a strong women isn't all about making her a kickass ninja or mighty knight or a space marine gunning down aliens. Stuff like that is awesome and fun, sure, but it's more about allowing your girls be as competent, influential and worthy of respect as the men. This includes women who are capable leaders, athletes, scholars, artists, philosophers, etc. The point being that men aren't naturally superior at everything, or at least everything that matters.

Maybe your girl doesn't know how to handle a sword and even avoids violence as a rule, but perhaps she's also really smart? Maybe she's a trickster or a tactician or a natural detective, like a medieval Sherlock Holmes? Just let her be good at something that makes her useful and not reliant on men all the time. Let her solve her own problems, give her ambitions, and let her be defined by who she is rather than in relation to some dude.

Counter question: If they don't, is that a good thing?

I mean, I would actually be kinda disappointed if nobody had any problems with a story that exclusively caters to men and male fantasies while featuring no women with their own agency in important roles.

Asking if you can get away with it seems a bit cynical, don't you think? Should you get away with it?

 

Probably. Whatever you do, someone somewhere is gonna be turned off by it.

 

Thanks for the replies so far.

I think I may have overstated the role of women in my plans in my first post.

It's not that women are actively discriminated against, it's just that I've centred the book around two, possibly three main characters, and I realised they were all men.

The main protagonist and antagonist are both men.

My main protagonist has a female twin, and long story short, the male is the dude going out and dealing with the main plot, whereas the female is stuck at home, as her overprotective father doesn't want her to experience the big bad world.

But the main plot follows the guy. And I don't want the book to come across as a macho-type book, but at the same time I don't want to shoehorn a main plotline in for a female just for the sake of it. I'm trying to find the right balance.

I should probably also add that I'm brand new to the world of writing and still at the 'doing research and refining ideas' stage, so I hope I don't come across as stupid!

 

some tropes are popular for a reason. I’m a sucker for this one every single time. I even went to see the latest Tomb Raider on opening night (horrific movie, btw)

 

The Bechdel Test isn't really relevant when applied to individual work; it's intended to apply to larger samples of works. If 90% of a sample of 500 stories has no significant female characters then we might discuss that as a problem. But if one of your stories has none, who cares? If the OP's story is a good story, then who cares how many women it has in it? Would a female character bring greater depth to the story? Would a female character make it more interesting to read because of her different perspective? If so, great. But quotas are garbage.

 

Having the book be about three main characters who are men isn't an issue. It's your book, you can write whatever you want. You could write a book exclusively about transexual dragons.

But taking the view that you have limited women in the story because of their 'subservient' status in the time period you have chosen is misplaced.

Anyway, if you're worried about it, you're writing a fantasy. Change it. Nobody says you need to copy George RR Martin or follow secondary school rhetoric on how medieval life was like.

Also, what do you mean you don't want to write a story from a 2020 style outlook? Who are you writing it for if not a modern audience?

 

What I mean is, I believe I am someone with good positive values in real life, and don't want to come across as a bigot or something when I am writing! But maybe I am overthinking it too much

 

I think you should only add a woman if your story needs it. There is nothing wrong with stories of all one gender, specifically if the situation tends to be dominated by that gender. What is the theme of your story? War? Politics? Matters of State? Religion? With very few exceptions, both were handled almost exclusively by men throughout most of human history. Even when there were specific examples, such as powerful Queens, the other elites tended to be defined by the husband's profession/business.

You won't alienate any male readers with a male dominated plot and if the story is good, I don't think you'll have problem with female readers either. I've read plenty of books where all of the main characters were women. As long as the STORY is not pointed at a specific gender, you're good. Example: Sisterhood of the traveling pants: about women, aimed a women, never read it. Little Women: about women, aimed at everyone, read and enjoyed it.

 

Well, by definition bigotry is dislike of people who have different beliefs as you. If you have good positive values, you won't be a bigot

Soo.. while I kind of understand where you're coming from here, excluding women from the story unless story unless they're "needed" is a bit like excluding emotion unless it's "needed". yeah, you can tell a story without it. But wouldn't you rather just have a well rounded story?

 

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a story that centres around men if that’s how you envision it. I have a story in mind that focuses on two women, I doubt many people would have a problem with that. I wouldn’t be too eager to shoehorn a character into a story solely for the purpose of keeping a group of people happy; while some may be put off by a male-heavy narrative, many more would be annoyed by a character who is obviously ‘just here to keep the girls happy’ (ie, Tauriel from the Hobbit films. You can just hear some smarmy producer sitting in a board meeting saying “We’ll throw in a strong female character and give her a love story arc, that’ll get the chicks into the cinema.” Yuck.)
From what you say in an earlier comment (I don’t know how to do that thing where you include a portion of another comment in yours, apologies) you already have a female character who could possibly be developed into something a little more interesting. Your protagonist’s twin sister could find ways to rebel against her overprotective father, perhaps sneaking out on her own adventures, or fighting in some way to get women an equal standing with men. Who knows, she could even start a revolution!

 

Yeah. I have been thinking of perhaps going down the route of her finding a path to 'proving' to her father that she doesn't need to be mollycoddled. I just don't want it to be too cliche!

 

Why do you think it needs more female energy?

If one of the elements in your world is male dominance, the women taking a back seat to the men will only make that point more obvious. Women in a male orientated world are brought up to accept male power and surrender to it, that there will always be one or two, over time that will push those social "laws".

I certainly couldn't add in another character and if your story is about men, I don't see a problem with that. If you feel the need, add something to an existing female character, even if it's just an unexplored sub-plot of her stepping even momentarily out of her place as a woman. I wouldn't worry about it being cliche because having a male dominated world in this time period in a fantasy land is cliche in itself. I read one that was set like that but in reverse. Women were the super power and it was men that got trampled on so to speak and that was unique and interesting and made an over done time period in fantasy very refreshing. So you don't have to look too far to make an old or cliche idea different or turn it on it's head.
Good luck

 

I only read your question and your answer is a very hard "No." I don't like this ridiculous notion that it's some how a sin to write stories for a male audience. This notion of representation being the holy grail of story telling is absurd. Representation and diversity are tools. They can add flavor to a story, but they shouldn't feel like a burden. And I think this feels like a burden.

Truth: Female warriors were very rare. There were some cultures like the Celts, the Amazons, and the Vikings that have female warriors and they were nothing to sneeze at. And we certainly respect all women who have served in the military, as police officers and fire fighters. But traditionally these roles are male. I am sick and tired of us females running from the truth and feeling like everything has to somehow appeal to us.

I would sooner read a story of all males with a good story and captures the human experience, then I would someone trying to pry in some female characters for... representation. Representation for its own sake makes crappy stories.

 

Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door opens. But that does not mean you should let all the apertures on your story's house opens.

 

Unless it adds to the story, don't shoehorn in characters just to appease social justice mobs or petty critics. They may hold this belief that everything should have 50/50 representation, but that's not how the world or society organises itself naturally. That's not being misogynistic, it's just being honest. Why should your story be any different? As a side note, readers and people can tell when you've created a character just to tick a certain box. They're not stupid, and people have a laser-guided intuition for such dishonesty now days. Take the recent Star Wars films as a prime example of how bad things can get when all you're worried about is appeasing every sub group going. The irony is, it's only over-educated, middle class white people that care about this sort of stuff. Most readers/viewers are too entrenched in their own problems to care, and when they read a book or watch a film, they simply want to be entertained.

What I would say though is you should definitely explore the idea of including such characters before proceeding. As others have highlighted, there's some interesting dynamics you can explore there, especially in the period your story is set. It all depends on what you want to express at the end of the day.

 

does it matter?

If I was reading something that was supposed to be some what historically accurate and I could tell the gender was shoved in just to appease me, it would kind of take me out of it.

There's plenty of books that have mostly male characters that are well loved; The Lord of the Rings, Fight Club, and pretty much most thinks by Irvine Welsh.

I've never read any of those books and wondered why there weren't MORE females.
Same with anything I've read that's mostly female.

If it doesn't work, don't do it.

 

I don't think there's anything Morally Wrong (TM) with having an all-male cast, but from a reader interest POV if there are women present in your setting and all of them are cardboard cut-out 'serving wench', 'wife', 'nun', etc, I would find the world pretty flat.

Rather than shoe-horning a female character in, consider starting smaller. Some ideas:

- Make some of the minor/background female characters go against their tropes.

- Let one or two of the key plot resolution points be driven by such a character: Maybe the Mayor's wife is an amateur anthropologist and gives the MCs key info about the relic they've found.

- Where it makes sense (stretch your imagination!), try gender flipping a few minor characters. Women kept inns, for example, and ran businesses of their own. Especially in nautical/smuggling contexts, women were crucial to making sure things on land ran as they should.

- Do a character study a few of your off-hand female characters. The girl at the tavern, for example: Who is she, what are her hopes and fears, likes and dislikes, who is she when she's not working in the tavern serving your MCs? Let a few of those details bleed out onto the page. Just a passing comment or two can be enough to breathe life into what was a cardboard cut-out.

- Let your MCs show admiration/respect for women sometimes beyond their appearance. Let them be in a tight spot and think 'I wish X woman was here, she knew all about quicksand, she'd know what to do'.

By building up minor female characters and thinking about them beyond the small roles they have on the page, you will hopefully begin to realise that even in repressive societies women were fully rounded human beings and many of them lived active lives with agency and ambition, and in some cases serious power. If you can train your mind to think like that, you may find that in future projects the female characters crop up organically, rather than you having to force them in 'because feminism'. Writing 3 dimensional women (or any other marginalised group) is not about appeasement, it's about you growing as a writer and making full use of resources to create a deeper, more authentic world.

 

I didn't say exclude, I said don't add unnecessarily. Adding a character of a specific gender just because you want to add a character of that gender is bad, especially if you already have a nice tight plot. That's not even really specific to gender, if you already have a good story with four characters, adding a fifth can change the dynamic completely. I was assuming there already is a well rounded story, because the original post was specifically about adding someone after the fact: "process of finalising ideas"

I was just pointing out that there is nothing wrong with a story being entirely one gender, and sometimes adding the opposite will completely change the story. Imagine if in Little Women, they had a brother and he was as integral to the story as the girls. Imagine if there was a little girl in the group in Lord of the Flies. While I'm sure Louisa May Alcott and William Golding would have still been able to give us great stories anyway, they couldn't be the same.


Also, personally, I tend to do the opposite. I try to subtract women from my stories as much as possible, but it's not about the women. I simply know that I lack the writing chops to do a female character justice, so I don't try.