I was at Penguicon last weekend and found out that most male writers prefer to write about female characters than male. I'm a chick and I prefer to write about male characters.

Do writers normally like to write about characters they are attracted to?


How about you?

To me, gender is irrelevant. I'm an equal-opportunity writer.

I think that, with comics, it just breaks down to the fact that most guys enjoy drawing female characters. I've done comics in the past with a male lead, and you have to be real creative to come up with excuses to put T&A on every page!

I have issues making a really interesting female character.

As for drawing them...we can all be unisexual as far as I'm concerned.


But it is a fact that 15 out of my 20 or so stories are from the pov/main character of a male.



Your statistic has been denied!

How about as a protagonist? I read that authors prefer writing about an opposite sex lead.

Sure I have variety in characters but I like writing with male leads.

When I was in my teens, I'd write for either/or, it didn't matter much to me. Eventually, I found myself preferring to write for female protagonists, at least in an adventure setting. They seem more rare, I suppose? When I see a lot of games and movies in that action and adventure kind of setting, it's usually a strong but sort of faceless 'awesome' guy with muscles. That's not always the case, but they tend to blur together for me.

Aside from the rarity, female characters strike me as more vulnerable in a sense, which opens them to better characterization. Well, unless they're intended as walking TA billboards, I guess. I've always liked Julie Winters from the Maxx and Devi from I Feel Sick, as an example. Heather Morris from Silent Hill. And similarly, I liked The Descent and Red Sonja.

That said, I don't have any burning attraction to Arachnid Goddess' Ahab, although I won't deny she can be fun to illustrate along certain lines of thought. Sometimes I wonder if I would have done better with a male lead, but eh. Maybe some other day.

I prefer to write about female characters, I think its because i prefer drawing them too.

I also noticed when i'm designing guys i don't have any qualms about adding imperfections or 'injurys' (like a cool scar or burn) to their designs, but i can't do that to my female characters.

All my stories have female leads. I guess it's just a matter of writing what I know. I'm female, and my closest friends are female too, so writing female characters and interactions comes naturally. It's who I relate to anyway, and I write stories primarily for myself and my friends. I assume men have generally the same thoughts and drives, so I don't think writing male characters is hard. I also seek inspiration from TV and books as well as men I know. Many stories have well-written males. (Plus, I turn to fictional inspiration for in which I lack real life experience.)

As for drawing, I have a much easier time with women than men. I draw all kinds of body (and face and hair) types in women, whereas I have trouble drawing different men with unique features. Plus, females have smooth lines and curves that come very natural to me to draw. Men are much harder to get proportioned, especially lean men, and I hate the look of defined muscles. As for physical imperfections, I have no gender bias. If an event would leave a scar, it usually does. I sometimes have trouble portraying 'ugly' or even 'plain' in either gender, regardless of physical imperfections. However, I think it has more to do with my artistic shortcomings than a psychological block. :P

Yeah, I prefer drawing women to men because I like to draw all the nice womanly bits :)
As for writing for characters- gender doesn't mater. Comics aren't that deep, so I'm not really getting into serious gender writing issues most of the time anyway.

-Additionally, for me, I find it easier to draw whichever gender I'm drawing most of at the moment and I find switching to the other gender quite hard. (no matter which one)
Men and women require different approaches and styles. I have a really hard time switching between them in the style that I draw.

As a male writer, I often choose to have a female lead character, simply because it's so common to have a male lead that this forces me to think about how people might act in real life rather than falling back on the stereotypical responses to situations. Not being the artist on my comics, I can honestly say this has nothing to do with wanting to draw all those womanly bits myself!

usedbooks
As for drawing, I have a much easier time with women than men. I draw all kinds of body (and face and hair) types in women, whereas I have trouble drawing different men with unique features.

That's an interesting point. It's bugged me for a long time that many male artists seem to be unable to draw more than one type of female character. They may change the hair style or colour but, essentially, they all have identical faces. This is true not just among amateur artists in the indy and webcomic communities but also among the professionals, and it has been ever since the early comics of the 1930s.

I'd never thought about female artists having a similar issue with their male characters. Just goes to show that men and women are far more alike than either may like to admit!
;-)

DAJB
That's an interesting point. It's bugged me for a long time that many male artists seem to be unable to draw more than one type of female character. They may change the hair style or colour but, essentially, they all have identical faces. This is true not just among amateur artists in the indy and webcomic communities but also among the professionals, and it has been ever since the early comics of the 1930s.

Maybe that's just because they're essentially crap at it?

It's one of the biggest reasons I can't get into published comics- most of the figures look the same, I find that way too visually distracting- at least with manga they don't try to do realism while they're cloning. It's not really that hard to make distinct characters (whatever the sex).
It MAY be that for characters they draw a lot they want them simple, generic and easy so they always draw the same one. -They even have the same body shapes. The only exceptions are the silly freak characters (hulk, thing etc).

...But often when I glance at those comics I see that side characters or bystanders are quite distinct... So maybe that lends credence to the theory that main characters have to be more generic for ease of drawing? Or maybe it's some sort of editorial policy or style convention. I dunno

Gender doesn't really matter to me. Although I do write a lot of male characters because I'm more familliar with the way blokes behave and interact with the world as well as the fact that the two main projects I'm working on are set in a world where men are less common and so their perspective on this situation is naturally the more interesting one.
In ALU however, there will be more female main characters. Just because they fit in better with the themes involved. That and, y'know. Still a female dominated world because it's the same universe just 500 years earlier.

Adjusting the balance deliberately would be stupid. Putting in more females just because there's not enough of them is usually a bad idea.

ozoneocean
Maybe that's just because they're essentially crap at it?

Ha! It could be that, I suppose! I doubt it, though. It's too widespread (affecting both amateurs and professionals alike, and indy as well as mainstream artists) and it's been going on too long (from the early Superman comics of Siegel and Shuster, through classic Kirby in the 1960s, Perez in the 1980s and artists like Jim Lee today).

ozoneocean
Or maybe it's some sort of editorial policy or style convention.

I doubt if it's editorial policy, because that wouldn't affect the amateur artists out there. Convention is clearly a strong influence (witness how many amateur manga artists copy the styles they see in mainstream manga), although that doesn't explain why it affects the depiction of characters of the opposite sex more than characters of the artists' own sex.

Personally, I suspect it may have something to do with the way our brains work. When an artist is drawing a character of his/her own sex, maybe they find it easier to imagine a wider variety of features (fat/thin faces, long/short noses, jutting/receding chins, sunken/protruding eyes etc) because (a) most of us know more people of our own sex and (b) the artist isn't necessarily trying to make them attractive. When an artist draws a character of the opposite sex, however, they are - perhaps - subconsciously more inclined to draw the kind of features they find attractive which means they repeatedly use the same kind of noses/eyes/mouths etc.

I don't know. It's just a theory. It would be interesting to know if gay artists find it more difficult to introduce variety into the way they draw characters who are the same sex as they are!

I've always wondered if there was something psychological about manga 'cloned' characters...like the characters can stand out with wacky belt buckle clothes and asbestos hair, but are still 'safe' for japanese readers to relate too. As underneath it it all they're the 'same' as everyone else in society. They aren't something 'weird' like a foreigner or big burly muscle man.

Or i might just be crazy and manga artists are all lazy template monkeys~yaaaay~

I write both, depending on the story. But I have noticed that sometimes it pays to take my initial draft and change the gender of the main character.

I have a tendency to write 'weak' males ... by which I mean thoughtful, introspective types. I recently wrote a Victorian-era story with such a character, and it wasn't working. But then ...

... wave the magic wand (or should that be cut off the magic wand?) and the weak male turns into a strong female lead. Suddenly the lead character was exciting and dynamic, pushing the gender boundaries of her society.

I definitely have a tendency toward female protagonists, enough that if I write or draw a male one it always has to be a conscious decision. I've often wondered why I tend to do this, it's true I like drawing lady-types though I tend to get bored with stereotypical "ideal females." I think I tend to get uncomfortable writing protagonists that are too similar to me and a good quick way to make the protagonist different from me is to make them a different gender than me. For me male characters are more difficult to write because finding ways to make them different from myself requires me to not only think of ways make them different from me but make them interesting to me as well.
For me it's hard to say whether gender or sexuality has much bearing on this. Most female cartoonists I've met also prefer female protagonists but many of them also tend towards autobio comics so they might just prefer character more similar to them rather than less.

ozoneocean
As for writing for characters- gender doesn't mater. Comics aren't that deep, so I'm not really getting into serious gender writing issues most of the time anyway.

I tend to disagree, while comics aren't necessarily that deep they certainly can be when it's required of them.

DAJB
As a male writer, I often choose to have a female lead character, simply because it's so common to have a male lead that this forces me to think about how people might act in real life rather than falling back on the stereotypical responses to situations.

I wouldn't think that with Shades. I guess the opening with Stan and Sunil really set the theme for the comic. Although Boo stole a lot of the spotlight later I seem to remember a lot more male characters doing their male character parts =p And in the Shaman's case WITH his male character parts!

Reading the Prologue you'd probably think I have a lot easier time writing for females. I think I have just as easy time for either though which I hope to someday prove since I finally got to introduce my male lead before going on grim reaper hiatus.

Fenny and Sally seem to be easier for me to come up with stories with BUT I've worked with these characters for the 3 years I worked on the prologue. Now that I'm focusing more of my mind on Rick his stories are really starting to write themselves too. Once I ever get him in the mix like I did with the girls he should really start being easier to write for.

I do enjoy drawing the women more though since I'm male :P I do try to keep my women and men diverse and not just the same models with different clothing/hair. One of my sub main female protagonists even has a huge burn scar going down the side of her face.

I have a hard time writing good main female characters. I have no idea why though. I tend to stick with males. But I don't prefer drawing one more than the other.

This is an interesting discussion, especially since I just wrote a paper for school on gender issues xD

I don't really think I prefer to write about one sex or the other, but I find that a lot of my stories tend to have more men than women and the protagonists tend to be males. I suppose it's more fun for me to write male characters because I'm not a man; it's more of a challenge. There are stereotypes out there about both sexes obviously, but I don't know if I can, for example, easily master how a man feels about certain things, which sounds really odd, but I do think women and men approach certain situations differently because they are women or men. Like relationships, I can't really put my finger on a specific example, but I think there are certain gender-specific dynamics that men and women bring to an intimate relationship regardless of what their personality is. But even though I don't fully understand those dynamics, I like to try to figure them out and write all types of male characters anyway. I think in that sense women are easier to write for me, but even so, there are situations that my female characters are in that I can't write perfectly about because I've never been in such a situation, yet I try to do my research to find more information about those situations (ex. pregnancy, abusive relationship). It's a little daunting, because I don't want my characters to react in a way that's nonsensical given their situation!

As for drawing men and women...

DAJB
When an artist is drawing a character of his/her own sex, maybe they find it easier to imagine a wider variety of features (fat/thin faces, long/short noses, jutting/receding chins, sunken/protruding eyes etc) because (a) most of us know more people of our own sex

I agree with this first point; it's so much easier for me to draw women because I am a female! It just clicks easier for me.

DAJB
(b) the artist isn't necessarily trying to make them attractive. When an artist draws a character of the opposite sex, however, they are - perhaps - subconsciously more inclined to draw the kind of features they find attractive which means they repeatedly use the same kind of noses/eyes/mouths etc.

Hm, I don't really agree with this though. Whether I'm drawing a man or a woman, I draw them based on what I "need" in my story. If I need a pretty girl, that's what I'll draw. If I need a trashy looking, somewhat conventionally "unattractive" woman, I'll draw that. But I see how a person could subconsciously do that.

Honestly, for awhile I never felt comfortable drawing men, not because I didn't prefer to, I just couldn't xD. There was a time that pretty much all my guys looked like women T-T

I personally have more male characters than female. A lot more actually.
I wouldn't call it sexism or anything, I'm just more comfortable writing for male characters because I can relate to them more, so they feel a lot more believable.

Maybe it has to do with femininity or how many girls the writer knows, I dunno, I just personally can write male characters better.

...Also design them better. Urgh.
Drawing them isn't that much of a problem for me, but designing their ensemble is a nightmare.

Female characters are easier for me to write, male characters are a fun challenge, thus enjoyable. My male characters and distinctly unfeminine female characters are much stronger because i pay extra attention to the way they talk and act because it's the exact opposite of the way I talk and act, lol. I'm pretty girly. @_@

Female characters are more fun to draw for me because I love drawing clothes. >> It's all about options! There's only so many ways to dress a guy in an "every-day" setting.

JustNoPoint

DAJB
As a male writer, I often choose to have a female lead character, simply because it's so common to have a male lead that this forces me to think about how people might act in real life rather than falling back on the stereotypical responses to situations.

I wouldn't think that with Shades

No, that wasn't a major consideration with Shades. I had enough other things I wanted to explore in that!

But in my vampire comic Hunted my two main protagonists are both female, and in my fantasy comic The Spires I decided very early on in the planning stages that I would reverse the typical structure of the questing heroes' group by replacing the usual band of "three men and a token girl" with a group of "three women and a token male". For a male writer, I think the advantage of having more than one female among the protagonists is that you then have to differentiate between them. In theory, at least, I believe that should help in giving each of them a little more individual personality.

DAJB

ozoneocean
Maybe that's just because they're essentially crap at it?

Ha! It could be that, I suppose! I doubt it, though. It's too widespread (affecting both amateurs and professionals alike, and indy as well as mainstream artists) and it's been going on too long (from the early Superman comics of Siegel and Shuster, through classic Kirby in the 1960s, Perez in the 1980s and artists like Jim Lee today).

Well, like I said- maybe main characters need to be generic for ease of drawing repetition.
Because the super-sameness equation isn't always like that with bystanders. ;)

DAJB
Convention is clearly a strong influence (witness how many amateur manga artists copy the styles they see in mainstream manga), although that doesn't explain why it affects the depiction of characters of the opposite sex more than characters of the artists' own sex.

Bust does it really? Maybe it's something more to do with your perception?
Personally, I find that most male characters in comics I've seen all look pretty much the same. Their bodies particularly!

There are some minor differences in facial features and structure, but as an experienced artist I put that down to the fact that "handsomeness" in men is typically indicated by ruggedness/chiselled features etc, whereas with women it's more about smoothness and how close they are to an ideal. You have a lot more possible variation and less standardisation with ruggedness than you do with smoothness.
Where differences in the sex of the artist comes in, females probably generally see more need to differentiate their female characters than men do, rather than it being easier because their brains or focus is different. -And vice versa for male artists.

patrickdevine

ozoneocean
As for writing for characters- gender doesn't mater. Comics aren't that deep, so I'm not really getting into serious gender writing issues most of the time anyway.

I tend to disagree, while comics aren't necessarily that deep they certainly can be when it's required of them.

Oh, I meant my comics aren't that deep in terms of gender writing, not comics as a whole. I didn't phrase my initial point very well.

There was an independent comic back in the early 90s (ish) ... can't remember the title ... that was unremarkable except for the basic idea ...

A misogynistic male and a feminist lesbian switch bodies. Suddenly the actions of the male (in the lesbian body) are no longer 'bad and sexist', and the political feminist comes across as a complete douche in the man's body when trying to hit on women.

It really had potential as an idea, but the comic went nowhere. However, it did succeed in making me think about gender in comics at the time.

Like a lot of the other posters on here, I usually use male leads because I want to "write what I know". I guess I'm just afraid that I wouldn't be able to convincingly write a woman as a lead character. I get the impression that she'd just come off as a man with boobs.

Actually, the supporting cast for my current webcomic is pretty much a sausage-fest. The only exception is the character of Ripley. In her initial appearances she kind of came off as a shrew. I've been trying lately to showcase other elements of her personality as well.

I suppose that's the only way one can keep their characters from remaining stereotypes. One just has to keep working on them and additional dimensions will grow as one progresses.

What are these "male characters" of which you speak?

....ahem. I favour female leads in pretty much all of my stories, and have done so for a long time. I blame Phantasy Star. Also, puberty.

As for the question of whether I can relate better to my male or female characters...well, they're are pretty far removed from me regardless of gender. That my main character is a barbarian warrior from late antiquity is more of a separating factor than the fact that she's female.

I like to draw male charas. I am male.

Why? Because I like to draw POWER, i.e. Force + Speed. Males with their well-defined muscles visually exaggerate those aspects the best, on a static page. Sure, females can do it too, but then you have to draw her with big (or hard) muscles, and that will compromise her femininity later on when you draw "drama" pages for her. With female charas, you have to reach a compromise between the 2 extremes. With males you don't have to.

That's not really a double standard. It's just because I draw action comics.

Addendum: Actually it still sounds chauvinistic. I give up. Personally I think I represent female charas well in my stories.

I say that, but my comics seem to be more talking than action. That's because the writer in me always demands story and characterization first... but the artist in me is always screaming When do I get to draw some POWAAGH?!

All of my pals in the internet circle from 2005 on up have all been female. I don't know what attracts them to me, but I've had one who's an aspiring photographer; one's in Disney interning; I've got one studying science, and so on, and so on. All my male friends up and went.

But all of them have been an inspiration, in the sense; different personalities, interests, fears, and phobias. Writing for females is a lot more to write than males a lot of the time. I've sorta studied each of them to get to know them in the sense.

Not that I'm copying them into my comics, but it provides good insight between who's who, and how to apply it to characters without being completely them.

This reminds me of a comment I once received on signifikat :

Oriru
I believe I know what's the problem with this comic, men are acting like girls and girls are acting like men. XD

The truth is, I write male and female characters pretty much the same way. I don't believe in stereotypes, and thus I don't believe that there's a substantial difference in writing different genders. It's just that certain characters accept and assimilate the stereotypes more or less willingly than others, or are more or less comfortable with them, thus behaving more or less according to what the gender-stereotype prescribes. What I do think is that men and women usually end up in different (social) situations, mostly because there are differing social expectations they are confronted with (thus possibly resulting in stable cognitive and/or behavioral dispositions to react to these expectations in specific ways), and that makes a difference in writing characters with different genders.

If I do prefer writing either, it's because of their role in the story. I think I often choose female protagonists because I try to figure out how they "work". Figuring out men isn't quite as interesting for me as figuring out women, but again, it depends on whether a purpose of the story consists in figuring them out in the first place. And then there's the obvious aesthetic difference. Aesthetic considerations always play a role in deciding which of my characters is male and which is female.

Hmm, I think when you draw/write superhero-type comics, gender matters less because the characters are larger than life. For example, if you have superpowers (or if you're highly trained), you're going to be an alpha male/female who will rise above expectations and stereotype pressures. Who's going to tell you what to do? Who's going to physically coerce or sexually harass you? Who's going to look down on you because you're a minority female? You can smash trucks with your pinky!

I was just watching an anime, where this girl who is actually a member of a supernatural race with powers, was pretending to be a human student and she was competition-fighting with a guy she likes in a karate dojo.

She got overpowered in under a minute, and this was after we've followed her thru-out the story around flying in the air like Superman and fighting gruesome monsters. It was so frustrating, I was practically shouting at the screen WTH ARE YOU DOING KICK HIS F---ING ASS!!!!

Later it was implied that she let him win because she liked him. That just p---ed me off. Like, whaaaaat. No, just no.

Where's her dignity? Superhero girls would not act that way. Except in 80's-90's Japan, I guess.