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these are eight ways that male authors
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get female characters completely wrong
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and also some practical things that you
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can do to solve these problems now men
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you should watch this so you don't get
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posterized on Reddit for writing women
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terribly and then women you probably
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want to watch this just to see whether
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you agree with me or not but I do think
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there is say one or two problems that
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you might fall into as well so we're
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going to go over eight common mistakes
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and the very last two are probably the
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most important ones let's start with
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number one making women incapable so
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Reese Witherspoon runs one of the
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biggest book clubs in the world Reese's
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book club and she argues that one of her
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least favorite lines of dialogue from
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female characters is what do we do now
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what this does is it makes your female
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characters very passive now is it the
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biggest problem in the world if this
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happens once well I mean no but what if
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most of your female characters do it or
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what if it happens across multiple books
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now a good test to see whether you're
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making this mistake in your fiction is
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trying the test which is from Lord of
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the Rings specifically from The Hobbit
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and this test simply asks do you have a
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female character who is good at her job
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Evangeline Lily plays the woodland elf
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torial in the movies and she is leader
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of the merkwood guards and she is a very
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very very capable fighter now obviously
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this isn't canonical toky and it wasn't
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in the books but they added it for the
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movie because they needed a strong
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feminine character but I think this test
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is very useful because if you don't have
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at least a single female character who's
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good at her job you're probably tending
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towards making your female characters
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incapable a second mistake a lot of male
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writers make about women is just a basic
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ignorance of the physical so on social
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media I saw someone complaining about a
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book they'd recently read and in it a
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female character is washing someone
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else's blood out of their own clothing
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and the omniscient narrator says oh she
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had never washed blood out of her
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clothing before um I'm guessing that
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author has never lived with woman before
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or is even maybe even aware that women
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have periods I find that male authors
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are often ignorant about makeup as well
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the mascara never smears the lipstick
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never comes off and they never take time
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to actually apply makeup in the book
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Silence of the Lambs when Clarice is
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preparing to meet Dr Lecter she worries
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that she looks too young so what that
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means is obviously she would be wearing
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makeup in an attempt to appear older
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right but she says right before she
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meets him she goes in the bathroom this
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is in the books by the way and splashes
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a whole bunch of water on her face which
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she wouldn't do if she had put on a lot
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of makeup and the third thing is just
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general ignorance about the body there's
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this Australian writer named Michael
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robotm and he wrote a book called when
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you are mine and here is a quote that
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you will not believe from that book I
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found myself wondering whether my
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ovaries had made a decision for me they
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sometimes jiggle when I'm around a man I
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fancy honestly I don't know whether to
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laugh or cry I I guess I'm going to
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laugh but woo ovaries do not become
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aroused by the opposite sex like that's
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that's just not a a thing okay for the
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next mistake let's consider number three
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attractiveness as the sole measure so
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there can be a tendency in a lot of
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books both written by men and written by
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women to associate Beauty with goodness
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so and what this looks like is the main
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character the hero is always extremely
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good-looking while the villain is always
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ugly and a hag I'm just going to go out
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on a limb here and say that beauty is
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not associated with moral goodness
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there's no correlation so just an
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example of this so you know I'm not
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making it up is in Rick Rens The
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Lightning Thief he often describes the
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antagonists as being ugly and fat like
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the minor antagonist karice who is
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unattractive and overweight and on the
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other hand his female heroins are always
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exceptionally beautiful like Annabeth
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Chase and I do think that sometimes
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female authors can make this mistake as
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well when they write tropes like the
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smart but ugly sister versus the
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beautiful but dumb sister or sometimes a
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sneaky way to prioritize Beauty above
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all else is when you describe a certain
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character is being past their Prime like
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oh this character used to be beautiful
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10 or 20 years ago I don't think that's
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a good way to describe someone what
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you're really saying is the most
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important part about this female
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character is their sex appeal and guess
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what they don't have it anymore however
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if I'm wrong about this you can roast me
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in the comments I am fine with having a
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debate on this let's go and in general
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I'd say that film and TV has exacerbated
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this problem most shows everyone is just
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absolutely gorgeous which is why it's
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really refreshing when you see a
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character who looks just normal in the
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show the perfect couple starring Nicole
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Kidman there is a detective in that show
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she is played by Donna Lim Champlain and
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she is just very normal looking she's
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decidedly not pretty she definitely
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wasn't cast for her looks but she looks
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like the type of actress who would
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actually be a small town detective and
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guess what she is an absolutely
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fantastic actress probably my favorite
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character in the whole show and it's
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just refreshing to see a female lead
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that isn't dependent upon her beauty to
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carry her the next mistake is crucial to
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avoid number four lack of story
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involvement so here's a question for you
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do your female characters affect the
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plot or are they just serving sort of as
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prop pieces for your male characters now
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a great test to determine this is the
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Moc Mory test which comes from the movie
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Pacific Rim and it simply asks do you
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have a female character who has an
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independent story arc that doesn't just
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support the male story arcs now Mo Mory
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inside the movie actually is a great
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example of this she survives an attack
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as a child but then loses her parents uh
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seeks revenge and wants validation from
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her adopted father Pentecost she is
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definitely not a sidekick character she
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is a standalone character in her own
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right now if you want a book that fails
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the Moco story test I'll give you an
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example the 23 books of The Adventures
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of Tintin or if you're French tonon
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written by Ur So in this book female
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characters are almost non-existent if
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they appear it's like very much in the
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background not as major characters at
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all now maybe your book does feature
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female characters in a much more
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prominent role than Tintin does but you
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also have to watch out for ideas like
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the damel in distress which is where you
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have a female character who occupies a
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very Central role but they are only
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existing to give the male character
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something to do to support the male
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character's Arc now I'll say one more
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thing about this everything I've said so
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far in this video has been about female
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protagonists main characters who are
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women it's just as important to make
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sure the background characters like the
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extras in your novel also are sometimes
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female right females are 50% of the
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population so don't make all the
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background characters just a default of
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men now it is time for the fifth mistake
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which is a lack of psychology if in your
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book you have a female walking alone at
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night and you never have once come in to
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her head that she might be scared for
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her safety you're not really tapping
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into what a woman would think in that
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circumstance another example if you have
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your female lead travel to a country
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like Egypt by themselves and not think
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of their own physical safety I don't buy
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it I just don't buy it when I traveled
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through Egypt I was with a woman and the
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number of cat calls that she got walking
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down the street with me with me right
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next to her was astonishing so you know
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you just have to be aware of these
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things things as a guy this is the
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female experience in the world now the
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second thing you have to pay attention
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to is the social sometimes men will
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write women and the women won't have any
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close female friends at all they'll be
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very socially isolated it just doesn't
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take into account like how women exist
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in the world this is what the Beckel
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test was actually created to measure
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because you have to have two female
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characters who are both named and
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they're talking to each other about
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something other than a guy and the third
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thing I want to say about psychology is
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make sure you get tricky stuff like
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infertility right to write a woman who
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is struggling with infertility you have
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to work on really getting their
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psychology right how hurtful it is to
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struggle with something like that how
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they feel socially how it affects how
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they relate to their partner how it
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affects how they think about themselves
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as a woman and plus you just have to
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know like medical procedures like the
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turkey baster method and exactly how
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many needles and shots it takes to go
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through a process like IVF it's a lot it
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is a lot as someone who did this with my
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wife trust me it is a lot of needles way
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more needles than you would think a
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sixth mistake that some writers make
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when writing about female characters is
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no agency does the female character in
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your story make decisions that are
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independent of men I'm talking about
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choices real choices so here's an
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exercise for you I want you to choose
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one of your female characters and list
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every decision that they make in your
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book but these decisions they have to
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affect the plot in some way they have to
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be decisions of consequence and also
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romantic decisions about men don't count
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I'm looking for other types of decisions
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now a test to see whether you're doing
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well in this category is the sexy leg
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lamp test this got its name from the
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sexy leg lamp in the Christmas story and
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it basically asks can your female
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character be replaced with a sexy leg
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lamp and it won't make a difference in
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your story at all applying a test like
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that to your fiction make sure you don't
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have like a strong female character this
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may be action oriented or just
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physically strong or something but they
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don't make any decisions that actually
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affect the plot the seventh mistake that
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I feel is very common is stereotyping
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women I feel like there are two ways
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that you could possibly stereotype your
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female characters one would be just have
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a character with all female traits like
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very feminine traits baking interior
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decorating yoga gardening it might be a
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good idea to throw in at least one trait
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which isn't stereotypically feminine so
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they feel like a real human being rather
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than a caricature yet on the opposite
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side of the spectrum I do think there's
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a problem with having a female character
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with zero feminine traits at all this is
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usually called the man with boobs type
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of writing because the author couldn't
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trouble themselves to actually learn how
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to write an authentic female character
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this is why I really dislike the writing
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advice to write a man and then just swap
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them into a woman because you're not
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really taking the time to step into the
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truth of who your character really is
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and one last thing to look out for when
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you're in danger of stereotyping female
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characters is authorial insertion and
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this is when it's painfully obvious that
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a male author auth is trying to say hey
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this is a real woman I've created on the
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page see she's examining her boobs in a
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mirror or she just got her period and
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usually this happens on like page two
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and it's just so transparent I'm like
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okay I see you trying I see you trying
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on the page now I see you the author
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rather than the character now we are
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down to our very final mistake when
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writing women and I think it's probably
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the one that a lot of you were expecting
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when you came to this video it's number
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eight cliched female description
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so I'm going to highlight three mistakes
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when describing female characters one is
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reducing your female characters to body
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parts and this is particularly
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problematic when it's the body parts
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that men might notice first hips boobs
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waist hair let's look at a satirical
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example of how you should never never
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never write a female character Cassandra
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woke to the Rays of sun streaming
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through the slats cascading on her naked
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chest she stretched her breasts lifting
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with her arms as she greeted the sun she
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breasted boobly to the stairs and titted
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downstairs I mean that's a satire but I
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think there's a grain of Truth in that
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is that some men write women focusing
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far too much on their chest don't be
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like that please please don't be like
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that a second common mistake when
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describing women is to focus on the
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numbers sometimes I'll see female
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characters introduced and they'll be
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like she was 5'7 113 lb C cup breasts
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one the dimensions are highly improbable
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and then two it's like introducing a
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male character by focusing on bicep
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girth and genital girth it's just it's
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just tacky and weird now if you're
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introducing a Jack Reacher sort of
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character not Tom Cruz Jack Reacher but
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Alan richson Jack Reacher then yeah of
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course you can focus on something like
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size but when you list women's
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measurements it's like you're putting
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them up for sale on Craigslist or
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something and it's just just very cringy
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and very tacky and then lastly when
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describing women I would beware of some
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overused adjectives stuff like dainty
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petite slender or curvy busty hourglass
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I think I might get some push back on
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this in the comments but let's be clear
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I'm not trying to ban these words I'm
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not saying never ever use these words
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I'm saying if you find yourself using
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words like this semi-frequently then I
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think you have to check yourself and be
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like is this a cliché male Centric
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vision of a woman is there a better way
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that I can describe her other than
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focusing on what is sexually attractive
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about her I hope that was helpful and my
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next video is going to be on mistakes
00:13:05
you should avoid when writing men so
00:13:07
make sure to check that out
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