Centering the Narrative at Smugglivus
I’ve written a post about centering the narrative over at Book Smugglers.
I really love epic stories. Whether film, tv, or fiction, I am deeply drawn to epic action-adventure with a fantastic or science-fictional element and really good emotional story arcs. In filmic terms, these are the stories whose trailers use stirring music and big, bold, vivid cinematography. In such trailers there is usually a woman somewhere, maybe in the background, maybe as a villainess, maybe as a love interest. When the stirring music really pumps up, the visual centers a man or men in an exciting altercation or a powerful confrontation.
Where are the women in these scenes of powerful confrontation?
Mirrored from I Make Up Worlds.
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Carol wrote: "I love epic stories, too, and I totally agree with you. It makes one think...are they just trying to target a male audience? Do they think men won't be interested in a story with deep, vivid female..."These are great questions that I don't have answers for. It seems likely (from things I've observed) that there are some male readers of epic fantasy who do prefer their stories with few (and often cliched) depictions of female characters. But at the same time, I -- and other women writers of fantasy -- have many enthusiastic male readers. So it's not clear to me why these days all the bestselling epic fantasy writers seem to be male, with (imho) often exceedingly male-centered stories. I suspect that to some degree many readers don't notice the absence of women/decent women if there are other qualities they like in the story. That strikes me as indicative, though, since if there were no/few male characters of a type they find interesting and strong, they would be very put off, I expect. So I suspect there is a double standard.
So, mostly, I just don't know.
Kate wrote: "So it's not clear to me why these days all the bestselling epic fantasy writers seem to be male, with (imho) often exceedingly male-centered stories. I suspect that to some degree many readers don't notice the absence of women/decent women if there are other qualities they like in the story. That strikes me as indicative, though, since if there were no/few male characters of a type they find interesting and strong, they would be very put off, I expect. So I suspect there is a double standard."On this topic, I'm interested to see how Brandon Sanderson's second Stormlight Archives book is received. He's certainly a bestselling, male, epic fantasy writer. His previous books have included female leads but usually surrounded by the more typical predominately male cast. The first book of the Stormlight series mostly bounced between 3 characters with the focus on one of the two males. He's said that this book will focus on the female main character and her female mentor, so I'm curious to see what the fan response is.
What do you think is necessary to make more readers aware of the disparity in gender roles in some of their books?
I've gotten a bit of topic I think, but hopefully you know the point I'm making. More (realistic) women characters, please! And include us in all the good bits, too!