Male or female...

You cold always flip a coin

Seriously? I might as well.

Although if I can, I'd like to keep his gender as ambiguous as possible so the readers can think MC as whichever gender they prefer. Too bad he has to wear uniform in school and while (DOUBLE STANDARD ALERT!!) I don't see much wrong with a girl wearing boy's uniform but vice versa? Uhm...unless there's good reason, I don't want to write that. I can't explain why because I don't have an adequate reason, but that feels a bit weird to me.

edited 27th Aug '11 9:14:29 PM by dRoy

Honestly I think every writer should write at least a few stories completely from the perspective of the opposite gender. So if you say you're not good at writing females and would prefer not to, then I say you should write one (not necessarily this, one, just in general). It makes you a better writer, more comfortable with writing other genders and a better person because you are more aware of perceptions of the opposite gender. Also I find it really cuts back on mary-sue-ness, or perception of mary-sueness, when your main character isn't the same gender as you.

Most people seriously get too caught up on gender, anyway. For every girl one would consider "girly" there is one someone would consider "boyish" and the same for boys. Gender traits aren't nearly as black and white as people think.

edited 27th Aug '11 7:46:02 PM by NoirGrimoir

Have you read the manga ID? It is reather Freudian, but the main character is serious Badass who is often mistaken for being a girl. He is so unaware of his gender, he doesn't even notice when he shows up to a party dressed in a ball gown...then he goes to fight demon in said ball gown.

Darn, ninja'd.

Good point...I will think about it. I actually wrote a fanfic or two focusing on girls, though.

Interesting. I'll be sure to check it out.

Even though the thread is half-dead and this has already been said, I want to stress it. In a hand-to-hand fight mass has a huge affect. Since generally women are smaller than men, it would make sense for a woman to be a Combat Pragmatist so her changes of winning are increased. For very waif-like people (female or male) fighting dirty is self-perservation.

Basically your bias that women can't/won't fight dirty is wrong. Have you ever seen a girl actually fight? Cause I have and, well, it quickly becomes apparent that we will pull out all the pragmatistic stops.

I don't expect a girl to fight fair because that's just not how fights work. It's just that I don't like to see a girl fighting like that.

...ah, chauvinism. What a brilliant reason to say "women can't fight like that."

The only thing that determines how someone should fight is what they're physically and mentally capable of. I suppose a personal values system could factor in as well, but...

(Main) Characters shouldn't really just be changed, gender-wise (or ethnicity-wise, if it will make a difference) unless it feels right. From your description, it may make sense if your character is a girl. It's supposed to be up to you as the author, based on what feels better, though. If you can't tell, you might want to practice writing the character more...

Is the character conventionally feminine?

Then make it a guy.

I decided to make the MC a male, just because I intend to use the fact that most characters confuse him as a (very pretty) girl as a Running Gag.

I actually do have female characters who are combat pragmatists but they are desribed as very masculine women and in military or similar organizations. It's just that I really love gentle and docile woman, which would exactly what the MC would be as a girl, and those two types of characterizations are something that I don't want to mix. Well, guess that still makes me a chauvnist.

edited 2nd Sep '11 8:59:01 PM by dRoy

~shrugs~

At least you admit it, I guess. Justifying Edit shot down.

Could be worse. What if Karalora was here? 0_o

edited 2nd Sep '11 9:00:59 PM by USAF713

Gentle and docile doesn't preclude one from fighting dirty (if they fight at all, that is). How is punching someone in the face (brute force approach) more gentle and docile than eye gouging or nut twisting (strategic application of very little force)?

Women can fight and very well at that. It's just that...to me, women fighting dirty is like women smoking. If they do it, fine for them what can I say, but I don't like the sight of it. Well, to counter my chauvnist point, one of the, if not THE, most powerful characters in my story is a girl. Then again, she is rather emotionally vulnerable and relies on the MC as primary mental support. I guess if MC is a male, it would be a regular Ship Tease, while if female, a "Romantic" Two-Girl Friendship.

Well fuck, I never realized I was such a chauvnist. I better change that view, it can't be good.

EDIT: Huh, ninja'd.

*shrugs* Well, there's another gentle and docile girl who happens to be a very efficient assassin who casually dismembers her opponent. Still, I have no excuse.

Who are you talking about?

edited 2nd Sep '11 9:09:21 PM by dRoy

Well, it's a question of Fridge Logic.

For example, I am Selective Squick about gay sex, but I will freely write homosexual and bisexual characters. It doesn't matter if I don't write the actual sex scenes (if applicable), though, because they aren't relevant to the plot. Sexy Discretion Shot works all the time, after all, not just for heterosexual couples.

On the other hand, something like smoking isn't something you'd necessarily do only in private... depending on the time period, anyhow. In a modern setting, you'd question why they smoke at all; either way, it's a part of the characterization, and it doesn't really make sense why they'd hide it.

Likewise, if not for personal taste (of the characters) reasons, why would a character fight cleanly? "Fight smart, not hard," after all...

If you haven't met her (she's a troper) you wouldn't get it. Let's just say she'd probably have caught the whole Double Standard thing far earlier than I did, and, I should assume, would have been more vocal about it...

edited 2nd Sep '11 9:12:06 PM by USAF713

d Roy: I really love gentle and docile men, but I still have men who smoke and fight dirty, among other things.

Actually one of my protagonists happens to be all of those things at once: he smokes, fights dirty, and is gentle and docile.

It's not like you can't have one and the other, you know.

edited 2nd Sep '11 9:31:50 PM by annebeeche

True, but I don't want to mix that, at least not as a female characterization.

Which is a Double Standard. I mean, you can do it, and we can't stop you, but that is, at it's most basic, a baseless idea.

It's going to alienate quite a few readers, assuming they pick up on it, though...

Oh well, what can I say. Who knows, I might change things while writing.

I'm assuming that, since it's something you like in a character, you do it a lot, yes?

In that case, it probably wouldn't hurt you to try something different with one character.

Hmm, necro.

Now I'm thinking about leaving his (for the sake of the convenience) gender really ambiguous. Even though since the story is set in Korean high school, he would be wearing uniforms. However, while he does wear boy's bottom, his shirts and everything is one worn by female students.

It might be a bit too hard to make THE MC's gender a bit ambiguous, though. What do I even do with the pronouns?