Jess Mahler on Nostr: #EngenderedWriting 24 — Is it okay for a man to write from a woman's POV? Or ...
#EngenderedWriting 24 — Is it okay for a man to write from a woman's POV? Or vice-versa? Why does this work or not work in your opinion.
For a while a popular bit of writing advice was 'write what you know.' I'm not hearing it as much any more, thankfully. Anyway, I really liked CJ Cherryh's inversal of it to "know what you write."
As a general rule, I see nothing wrong with folks of one gender writing a different gender's PoV. The differences in how we experience the world generally have more to do with our upbringing, senses, attitude, etc, than with our gender.
That said there are clearly *specific* authors who had no business writing PoV genders other than their own. "Breasted boobily" was a joke, but it's based on a thing that some (mostly male) authors really do.
Then there are also times when differences do matter -- writing harassment or bullying, for example as those tend to be very gendered experiences.
In any case, I fall back on Cherryh's advice -- know what you write. If you are going to write from a pov -- ANY pov -- you do not experience, do your research, know what the differences are and how to write them appropriately and respectfully.
For a while a popular bit of writing advice was 'write what you know.' I'm not hearing it as much any more, thankfully. Anyway, I really liked CJ Cherryh's inversal of it to "know what you write."
As a general rule, I see nothing wrong with folks of one gender writing a different gender's PoV. The differences in how we experience the world generally have more to do with our upbringing, senses, attitude, etc, than with our gender.
That said there are clearly *specific* authors who had no business writing PoV genders other than their own. "Breasted boobily" was a joke, but it's based on a thing that some (mostly male) authors really do.
Then there are also times when differences do matter -- writing harassment or bullying, for example as those tend to be very gendered experiences.
In any case, I fall back on Cherryh's advice -- know what you write. If you are going to write from a pov -- ANY pov -- you do not experience, do your research, know what the differences are and how to write them appropriately and respectfully.