In this special holiday episode of the Favecast, we’re joined by former game journalist/one-time guest Kotaku weekend editor and Dishonored 2 narrative consultant, Cara Ellison, to talk about the subtle things women notice when men write female characters, primarily through the lens of Uncharted: The Lost Legacy.
Please note! We recorded this podcast on the road, from Scotland, so the audio quality is not studio-grade. Still, we had a great conversation with Cara that we wanted to share with you all.
You can download this episode here. Alternatively, we’re on iTunes here (leave us a review!), on Google Play here and/or check out our RSS feed here.
Comments
5 responses to “What Women Notice When Men Write Female Characters”
Genuinely curious how such a conversation would turn out if the gender of the writer wasn’t known beforehand.
We have centuries of evidence telling us how gender bias works in writing. It’s why some women still use male pseudonyms in order to see more commercial success.
And your point? I’m precisely referring to the gender bias of the ‘readers’ in this case.
The very first example provided in the podcast is pretty awful writing just in general, but the rest of it (in regards to Uncharted especially) really becomes, “It’d be this way because that’s how I’ve experienced this or that.” and nothing more. There’s nothing substantial at all.
They know there’s a male behind it so automatically discount it as invalid on that alone, ignoring any possibility that women other than themselves might actually have different experiences or perspectives to situations than they do.
The fact the gender was known beforehand is a problem, any sort of analysis of how reflective the writing actually is of women is immediately tainted.
did…did…did the two of you just make a string of unfounded hyperbolic gender-based arguments claiming that ‘people’ (feminists) make unfounded hyperbolic gender-based arguments?
Well ok then.
Except the arguments aren’t really unfounded when the evidence is right there in the podcast. The women on the podcast are complaining that male writers don’t portray female relationships correctly because they write them like male relationships – which they’re apparently an expert on even though the reverse is apparently impossible.