Writing Tips #3: Avoiding Sexist Writing

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If you're interested in writing, regardless if you're experienced or just starting out, you might find something useful in this tip series. Today we're talking about an issue that all writers, experienced or new, could relate to, so make sure to give it a once over even if you're a veteran writer.

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Introduction

Ok, so let's get this out of the way. No, I am not saying you are a sexist. I like to think that most folk aren't. Regardless, what do I mean by "Sexist Writer"? Well, to put it bluntly, it is writing the characters of your opposite sex - badly. Most writers I know have problems writing people of their opposite gender. This is of course normal, and every writer has struggled through the process.

There are several levels of subconscious sexism when we write, and we'll be going each one of them. Why would your writing be sexist subconsciously even if you consciously aren't? Again, that's due to the fact that you simply don't know how to write them, and you are just taking the easy way out. In order to improve this, you must make a conscious effort to do both genders justice.

We'll be going through each level of sexist writing, and by making you aware of these levels I hope to trick your brain into avoiding them. Just knowing about them might help a lot of you out.

Level 1 - Man/Woman as Object

So this is the worst. And you'd be surprised how many times the man has been the object, although we all know that there are more cases of the woman being so. And these cases where the man is the object, are often written by female writers.

What "an object" means, is simply that that character has no other purpose apart from being something the protagonist strives to either protect or destroy. They have no character and are just plain flat. This one is most common in old writings and has largely been avoided nowadays (although, we sadly still see it from time to time)

Level 2 - Paragon

This one is a little more forgiving, but still pretty bad. We are now past the point of the person not being human, they are pretty human right now, but still not all the way there. These "paragon" characters are a trapping that even experienced writers fall into. Basically, you have one character in your story that exemplifies the entire gender. And they will be all-knowing and all-powerful - and there will only be one of them. This is still not a human though, not a real one anyway. This character still doesn't have a character arc, or any relatable qualities, they are just cool and awesome.

Many writers understand how bad Level 1 is, so they try to make it up by creating a paragon. And make no mistake, each one of these levels is better than the last one, but none of them are what you should be striving for. Nevertheless, we can still do better. And in order to craft a truly great story, we have to.

Level 3 - Paragon(s)

This one might seem silly, but it truly happens to a lot of writers. :D Ok so Level 2 is bad right? I know that now. How do I fix it? Well have more of them obviously! No! Bad writer! Bad!

The (s) at the end there signifies a specific number. It doesn't have to be one or three, you can have as many as you want. But they are still exemplifying, and they are still not characters. Not truly. They still don't have character arcs, and are still not what you should be aiming for.

Level 4 - The Only One

So, phew, we've gotten this far, you are almost out of these pesky levels! This last one is most common. You will find this level of sexism in many famous stories, done by great storytellers. What it means is: your character is no longer a paragon. They have been fully developed, and have an arc. They are a fully fledged character - and there's only one of them...

Still not good enough.

How to Avoid It

Building a character is hard, and we'll probably have several other blogs on the subject. For now, a couple of tips should suffice. Giving a character quirks is an easy way to start. Say, they like eating food a lot, or they get mad when you call them "doll", it could be whatever - and it's a good place to start.

Secondly, the character has to have dreams. They have to want to become something they are not. They have to have some agency in what they are doing. This will display them not as a showcase, but as a person trying to get ahead in the world.

Thirdly, they have to be flawed. Some handicap, something, anything. Being flawed removes that image of perfection, it allows the reader to connect with the character more, it makes them feel real.

Developing characters from the opposite sex doesn't mean you have to understand the inner-working of a man or a woman. They are still flesh and blood humans like you or me. Stick to basic human principles and needs, and go from there. Give each character the same amount of love and respect, and they will not disappoint you.

I had a friend, who just "couldn't get her mind around the male brain" (her words not mine). So what she did was, write every character as female, and then at the end just changed a couple characters' gender (this is a terrible idea, don't do this!). But it worked for her, because while that project wasn't anything special, it helped her understand what she needed to do. Take a step back, and give every character their deserved attention.

Conclusion

There were a couple of "you-have-to-do-x" in this blog. I'm gonna reiterate what I've said in previous blogs, you don't have to do anything, you can do whatever you want as long as it works for you. These are just suggestions from people way smarter than me that I have collected and absorbed during the years of me learning writing. Use them as guidelines, "tools in the toolbox", not as rules. They aren't rules.

You guys might be wondering why we didn't go into more detail about "character creation", we probably will in the future. This blog's purpose was to make people aware of what they're doing, what they might end up doing, and by doing so making them avoid it.

And for those asking: why should I bother?
Realistic characters, make a realistic world, make a better experience.

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Thank you for reading!

If you missed the previous parts of this series, you can find part 1 here! and part 2 here!

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