Can you describe a characters physique e.g curvaceous muscular thighs, or the way someone walks e.g when she walk her bum cheeks jiggle with every step, or is that classed as sexist.
Who's looking? Who's regarding? Why are these the things under observation? There's a lengthy conversation already in existence here in the forum on this topic. It starts as tongue in cheek, but do read on.... https://www.writingforums.org/threads/men-please-dont-write-women-this-way.149954/
Yup, if it's erotica, or she's a dancer or something, it's not only appropriate, but pretty necessary. A biography of, say, Eleanor Roosevelt, maybe not so much.
@Davos Da Dudos Welcome to the site! I am an asexual/aromantic virgin. A narrative from my POV would not describe the person in that way because I do not describe people that way. The narrator of my Urban Fantasy is a pig who thinks that he's an egalitarian because two of his best friends are women. The sexist language I use in his narrative is a judgement against his ability to empathize for describing the women that way, not a judgement against their value as human beings for being described that way by him.
Totally agree. The question is not if you should it's what is it doing. Even to take a more mundane example than Simpson's; if you are describing someone who is a love interest then describing the parts of her that the other person finds attractive is actually important. If he really likes her bum then repeatedly mentioning it is showing us that this is the case without him having to tell us. Spending time describing her body shows us why he's throbbing in her direction and even really spending a lot of time on it is fine because, well, he's really paying attention to those details and it's important that we sympathize with him that she's sexy. It's only gratuitous (and hence icky) if it serves no purpose. As long as it informs something more than just her appearance then it's totally ok. Showing rather than tell is a good thing, so show us this stuff. I wrote a book about beauty pageants, which has a lesbian romance in it, and writing the MC staring at this other girl is important; transitioning from her just kinda checking out her competition to luxuriating in running her eye up this girls leg. And is that a bit pervy to leer over a teenager in the text? Sure, but the MC is the one who finds herself constantly thinking how gorgeous her soon to be girlfriend really is. The jump from her thinking the other girl is just pretty in an objective sense (they're all pretty) to slowly finding all the different ways that she's perfect shows us how her feelings are changing.
I agree with what has already been said. If it is a character's point of view, then it is fine, as long as you want your character to have that point of view. If it's more of an omniscient narrator, why is he looking at the woman's thighs? Paint a picture of your character's, sure. They can be muscular. They can be athletic. If you feel the need to describe various body parts, though, ask yourself why. Ultimately, though, you're writing for your audience. If it's erotica, then it is expected. If you're writing for 'lads', then they'll probably appreciate the gratuitous descriptions. I'm not sure, though, that's the kind of behaviour we want to be reinforcing.
