When I write, or consider writing. When the first dust of an idea swirls around and slowly forms itself into a greater shape, I usually start with a female main character. Afterward, I always have to re-think. What am I saying by having a female main character? Am I making a statement about gender, equality, the roles of men and women? No, no I'm not. I am female, therefore I tend to imagine females. I worry that if I wrote the main character as female people would assume I was trying to make a point where I wasn't. Gender issues do not concern me, nor do racial issues, really. I know how things should be, I know how they are, and everything else is preaching to the choir. For me, at least.
But then, I realised, if I had thought of a male main character, these issues of whether people would assume I was trying to make an issue out of gender just wouldn't arise. Because male is still the norm, just as white is still the norm. And the true sign of equality will be when we can read things and not stop to think whether the author is trying to make a point about gender/racial equality.
But for the moment, it's an issue I have to deal with, one way or another. Either by making as plain as can be the fact that gender does not matter to me, or in my writing; or by making certain characters have uncertain gender. They will have a gender, certainly, but the reader will never know what it is.
Slayer Igraine Community Member |
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