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out_cyder OP t1_j4qbmjc wrote

Reply to comment by nyet-marionetka in Why don’t I, as a woman, like books with female protagonists? by out_cyder

I mostly read horror/thriller for both.

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Grace_Alcock t1_j4qef9d wrote

I think that may be the problem…there’s a whole genre out there of women writing thrillers with pretty nasty female characters that a lot of people just love (Gone Girl and its followers). If you were fairly young and thought that was representative of women writers and women characters, you might get the wrong impression.

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PyrexPizazz217 t1_j4r6r2w wrote

I love Gillian Flynn for the depth with which she writes complicated women. If anything, men who write thrillers treat women worse.

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Grace_Alcock t1_j4rmd57 wrote

And I hate Gillian Flynn’s novels. I’m a woman and don’t find her characters remotely relatable or even particularly interesting or realistic. They seem heavily stylized to me. So clearly it’s just a matter of taste. If OP doesn’t like this particular genre, it certainly isn’t representative of all female authors of characters. It’s a very specific genre.

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Hour_Squirrel_4914 t1_j4sufmt wrote

I agree. I haven't read the book, but the "cool girl" monologue in the movie that everyone raved about being so deep and relatable was totally cringe and unrelateable to me. I'm a woman too and I've never had those thoughts, felt that pressure, or put on that performance.

Media promoters and reviewers really have to stop painting with such broad brush strokes and insisting certain portrayals are "the female perspective". I think that's the source of a lot of this annoyance.

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BooksOfDreams t1_j4qhs9u wrote

Have you read White Horse? Female author and protagonist but she felt different from a lot of other female leads in a good way. Not sure how to explain it but I really liked it, might be worth a try.

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