I know, this is the third post I’ve done on this current issue, but it’s important. Not least, to me, because about 60% of my viewpoint characters are women.
In my current WIP, I’m thinking of having one of my female characters say, “I’m not here for you to look at. I’m here to do engineering.” Because that, I think, is the heart of the problem, not only the literary problem but the social problem: men are conditioned to think of women as primarily there for their enjoyment, as only relevant for their attractiveness and willingness to offer sex. Only once we treat women’s stories, women’s realities, women’s concerns and experiences as valid and important in themselves do we make progress. And this is also the real point of the Bechdel Test (“Does this story include at least two named women, talking to each other about something other than a man?”)
I don’t find it easy. When I see an attractive woman, I’ve taken to reminding myself that she’s not there for me; she has her own thing going on. It’s a start.
Originally shared by Jack McDonald Burnett
A lack of imagination and a tendency to objectify certainly play a part in this. Little interest in female stories, which are not given the same status as male ones? Absolutely. But the taboo aspects of womanhood, particularly when it comes to our bodies, must surely also be a reason. When faced with such complexities, these writers take refuge in descriptions of cleavage, believing it is enough. It is not enough, and we are right to mock them. Maybe as a result they’ll try harder next time.
I don’t know. Am I guilty of this? I don’t think I describe a single boob in any of my work.
Izzy had about seven and a half months’ growth of rich, dark chocolate hair, not quite down to her shoulders; and she had a narrow face, pale likely from being knocked unconscious, that made her longish narrow nose and prominent cheeks more striking.
…
She was smart—BS, MS and PhDs in molecular biology and biophysics—well-spoken, accomplished, attractive, a pioneering female astronaut out of central casting. As the March departure neared, Callie became something like royalty.
…
Pam felt self-conscious around Alice, though Alice herself did nothing to encourage the feeling. But she was gorgeous and in great shape. Pam was curvy, she liked to say, and considered her looks nothing special: her dark complexion, flat nose, and narrow brown eyes came from her half-Cree, quarter-Iroquois heritage, and they weren’t combined with any remarkable nonnative feature. Both she and Alice had straight dark hair, but Alice’s always shone and bounced when she walked. Alice didn’t seem like the type who had any time to bother with nails, but hers always looked perfect, like they wouldn’t dare be anything less. Her attitude wasn’t the only reason she was intimidating.
Uh oh. I said “curvy!”
I have to admit that She breasted boobiliy to the stairs, and titted downwards is funny.
