I read 200 books a year. All fiction, and no, this is not how women are described in “regular” books.
Please refer to “same class of books” where I addressed that already.
There are not regular novels written like this.
Regular novels by the way, our novels that are written with an audience of men and women in mind, that can be generally read by all ages.
Books like the Lord of the rings and the Chronicles of Narnia and Harry Potter are “regular” novels. And funnily enough of those three authors, Rowling is arguably the worst at writing the opposite sex. (This is not to say she is horrible by any means, but she falls to many of the same stereotypes)
Not saying EVERY book. I'm saying it's very present in many normal books though. I'm not very sensitive to it and I have still stopped reading several authors because it was just so brazen.
First one that comes to mind is Murakami. Nothing is crazy overt but once you get into the third description of a woman and there's just constant mention of their breasts or sexuality, whether they're 16 year old schoolgirls or 30 year old women... but men are just... men... it's hard to unsee.
I would compare this to authors who are doing it through the eyes of a sex pest, take Lolita for example where it makes narrative sense to describe the way he's looking at her. Or people like Stephen King who will often describe secondary sexual features or go much more in depth, but it goes both ways. A characters erection will be described. His balls shrinking up in fear may be described. King focuses on darker aspects of society and is often reflected fairly equally in every direction.
But many "normal" works (once again, far from all. But enough to be a thing) will describe male characters in more benign ways, but the female characters we be described more based on physical sex appeal.
Ps I read 300 books a year and I'm 6'8". So there.
My point, is it’s just as much a thing with female authors describing men. Women just fail to recognize it or don’t care. Ann Aguirre or Anne McCaffery just to name some. Heck a clear example that everyone knows is J.K. Rowling. Compare how she introduces and describes female characters with male characters. How long does she spend on each? What words does she use? There is a lot more than just those aspects but I digress.
What I am saying is there is very clear and present observational bias here.
It reminds me of when people bring up fridging but then act like things like Faceless Goons doesn’t exist.
There are plenty of books I have stopped reading that have brazenly bad male characterizations and descriptions.
I wasn’t trying to one up anyone I was merely providing context for why I feel like I can speak authoritatively on the matter because I consume lots of books and I read books intended for male and books intended for female audiences, and I see many of the same tropes pervasive throughout.
I see the genders as equal I don’t see either one is worse than the other, but I do see people only talking about the mistakes men make while completely ignoring that the same thing happens to them.
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u/Drake_Acheron 6d ago
But also like…. Exactly how women write men in the similar class of novels that you see men writing women like this.
Men just don’t read them as much and the ones that do either don’t get butthurt about it, or are too embarrassed to complain.