I'm not sure why you're getting that impression, but I do like a lot of the advice I'm getting. I just don't bother responding to the advice that I like without having anything to add, because increasing the length of a long post to quote them and say "Thanks, good advice" will turn a wall of text into an even bigger wall of text. (And with the stuff I respond to, I do disagree with some of it, but in other cases I was just adding context or clarification as to why some of what they're suggesting might not work, but why other parts could still fit. Also: In regards to Ripley, I meant 'Alien', I get the two titles confused due to their similarity. After going back and rewatching clips from both to refresh my memory as to which is which, yeah, Ripley in Alien is who I was talking about, Ripley in Aliens is a good example of a female action hero as a female action hero. (Also: Anyone else notice that they're just using Steadicam rigs to mount their guns?) That's a good point, I had been thinking of both issues you mention as a single thought, and not as two separate problems to be tackled independantly. As a thought experiment, I might try gender-flipping the characters for a scene and seeing if there are any changes I would make, or if everything seems to perfectly match. I'll admit, part of this may just be paranoia. There's the old problem that I can't know what I don't know, because I don't know it in order to know that I don't know it, etc. etc. I hadn't even considered this as a problem until someone else brought it up in a general conversation (Relating to fiction in general, rather than any specific work I'd done,) but now that I've considered that it MIGHT be a problem, I can't shake the feeling that I could be screwing something up without even realizing it. This was actually a part of the conversation we had over thanksgiving. My aunt posited that because for the majority of history (At least, the majority of the history of western fiction,) work was written from a 'Traditionally male' perspective, and even in more recent times, using a male voice/perspective is the 'Default', even for female authors, because writing in that style was predominant for such a long period of time that it stopped looking like what it was (That is, that the majority of writing was written in a certain way because it was from a male perspective) and started looking like the majority of writing was simply written that way because that's how characters were written. (If all the ice cream you it is some variety of chocolate, then eventually 'Ice Cream' and 'Chocolate' will become synonymous.) I'm not sure if I completely agree with her statement, but it's part of what got me thinking about this whole problem to begin with. Say, where does that link go to? Oh, TVTropes? That's... Say, where did my entire afternoon go? (Though, in reference to your actual post: That's pretty much what I'm looking for, little quirks and differences that would never occur to me, but might seem out of place to a female reader.) It's actually a long story why I chose this protagonist, but the short version is that I originally started with a much larger cast and a very different story, but after throwing it out and reworking it from the ground up, I was able to trim things down to a much more neat, concise story that I liked a lot more, and I was left with only a handful of my original characters. The story didn't work if she was a young (Early 20s,) adult, though, like I'd originally written her, so I aged her down and gave her a family and kept changing things until she barely resembled her original characterization. Really, the story of how I came up with this story is much more long and convoluted than any story I've ever come up with... As for the love interest thing, I'm going to clarify on my last comment about it: I'm not opposed to giving her a love interest, period, I just don't have any room for it in this story. I have some loosely sketched out sequels that I may or may not write (I mostly sketched them out so that I could give myself a sense of where these characters were growing to, so I could give myself a better sense of progression and not feel lost,) and adding a love interest in one of those might be great, there's just not on opportunity as it currently stands.
Yeah I find the best way to get people who make such statements to backtrack is to simply ask what they mean by it specifically. Man with Breasts only works in any kind of literary discussion if you stay vague, and don't commit. This whole topic is vague and ambigious. No one wants to bite the bullet and define what women don't think like. If that's not going to be defined, then Man with Breasts breaks down as a concept. Therefore so does the OP's concerns.
@BayView I don't think genetic defects in the brain are a dis-qualifier as to what makes a man. That slides on both sides of the aisle. So the serial killer would fall under mentally defective, not that they don't still have the same primitive ingrained traits. All it takes is pushing somebody over the edge between anger and pure hatred with some kind of fanatic justification for their actions. IDK, it doesn't really matter what I think. I was not raised around gay people, and therefore tend to have a bias toward heterosexual characters. Now this does not mean that I don't like gays, I just don't know enough to portray them as effectively. So by default I would be using the straight male model. At the end of the day I just pick a body and throw a personality into it, and whatever happens, happens. My only tools are my experiences that I have when it comes down to my interactions with other people. The good the bad and the ugly. Human or otherwise, male or female, I think more about what they are going to do based upon their persona than what their bits are. They are defined by what they do not what they are. It sounds stupid, but it hasn't made them any less real as characters. Tailoring characters based on gender makes it far too easy to write them into disbelief. And that is my honest opinion when it comes down to how I write characters.
Yeah, that's a pretty well known bit of trivia. Added to the fact that they're using German mg-42s with a few motorbike parts welded on.
Okay. Guys. Here's the challenge. Prove your mettle like this. Tell us what women say to each other when no guy is around. And, be advised most women will either deny they talk about anything or LIE when asked by a guy. If that doesn't raise the bar it will surely raise some paranoia.
When no guy is around? Difficult, because there are no women-friends in my vicinity and I don't care to speak to myself or creep the next innocent girl out that crosses the street. And you are of course free to imagine what I might say to creep this imagined girl out edit: If you are imagining that girls compare dick-lengths of their boyfriends or brag about how often he has ironed shirts without being prompted - think again. Really and for the last time: We are NOT a different species!!
Obviously real women talk about husbands, shopping, cooking, vaccum cleaning, washing clothes, children, flowers, dresses and each other's breasts.
"That penalty last night was fucking ridiculous, no chance that should have been given." "You're just annoyed because your lot are out of the cup." "Bollocks, the boys are coming, let's change the subject.... are those new army boots?" My female friends are well trained that only about one of their male friends could give a shit about football
I'm afraid I'm going to have to disagree here, to an extent. Not that I've done much "fighting" per se, but I can speak to being "busty" in physical (and dangerous) situations. NO WAY I'd knowingly go into a situation like that NOT properly strapped in and supported. It's not only painful for the bust, but also the back- not to mention, well, they can get in the way! The LAST thing to be thinking about when you are defending yourself, or there is a need for heightened defense, is your girls flopping about. This in itself can affect breathing- take it right out of you. I agree breathing is important, but I'd much rather be a little squeezed than trying to defend myself without the ladies firmly secured. Any woman with large breasts, especially one with any experience dealing with her anatomy in physical situations, would know how to bind- or choose ways to support herself- without hindering her ability to breath properly.
I have done alot of points based tournament fighting and there's not much to disagree about. No one binds in Karate I can tell you that. In fifteen years of it I've never seen it. If you bind tight enough for it to be relevant, it does restrict breathing. In fact when transmales do it they get rib, lung ,and cardiovascular problems. Even blood clots. It's not a safe practice by any means as there's a chance you can literally drop dead on the spot from it, from a pulmonary embolism. No ones saying go to battle with no bra or no support but binding is the most idiotic thing you can do in a fight. The entire body as a system has to come first in any aerobic activity. You can deal with pain once you live through it. Gas out or worse, faint, and you ain't living through nothing. http://www.transgendertrend.com/breast-binders-in-uk-schools/ And while I disagree with that article as I thinking binding is acceptable if it's to help crippling gender dysphoria, it's not something you do just cos you wanna fight somebody.
Binding is a specific practice and I'm stating facts. Athletes don't bind, Serena Williams doesn't bind. Martial artists don't bind. For everyday life, doctors don't recommend binding. School councils have said that binding makes physical education difficult and can cause fainting. Studies have shown it can cause various negative health outcomes. Wearing a sports bra or any fantasy precursor isn't binding. Let's not conflate the two. One is quite safe the other is not.
I assumed that @BayView meant a bra-like form of support, whatever was available or could be concocted in a fantasy environment where you can't take the escalator to Ladies' Lingerie. Not the modern meaning of the term.
Wow - I'm controversial! And, yes, I just meant some form of support other than a 20th century bra. I was thinking of the term as used in a fantasy fiction setting, not the characterization of a trans man character. And I didn't mention fighting at all, so... this whole thing seems like a bit of an unnecessary sidetrack?
I can't give you a direct answer. I don't think I'd be able to write from a man's perspective at this point in my life, but I can tell you what usually stand out for me in female characters written by men: When I read a book by man, I honestly very rarely relate to the female characters, because they are often portrayed as people who have insight that the male characters do not or they have a certain confidence that they know a secret. I guess this is a compliment, and I guess it is what they refer to as the feminine mystique? But do we come across that way? Great! But I can't relate to it, because I don't feel that way. I feel utterly confused most of the time, and I think a lot of us chase this idea of the feminine a lot, and when a man described the feminine, I think what? I don't feel like that at all? And should I feel that way? Sorry, I think that this is a confusing description but in short, I think that a lot of female characters written by men are just too well balanced and too emotionally mature to be realistic. They are always too sure about their decisions, feelings, and self. But then I read one book written by a man in the POV of a woman. The book was written in first person, and I have to admit that I was very surprised when half-way into the book, we find out that she is a woman. She didn't seem to have any emotional strains from all the (many) horrible experiences she had. Which is weird for both genders, but I also think that she was very black and white, and I think that sometimes that's a masculine trade and more women see the world as grey. So I don't know what my answer is, but maybe my rambling can help since I guess the only answer would be to listen to women and find out that way?
Interesting, because I can think of a number of books that have infuriated me because they had POV female characters of adult age and social status who acted and (to my male eyes) thought like spoiled junior high school girls throughout. Some adults, no matter what the gender, do fail to grow up, but it strikes me a sexist when the female characters spend all their time obsessing over whether the males like them, while the males are busy (fixing the ship/fighting off the bad guys/generally solving all the problems).
