Sensitive issue question regarding sexes

[Ivonia]

I realized the current draft of my novel, I have no strong female characters at all. So my question is, "Does the sex of a character often matter much in a novel"? I'm guessing it's largely "no", but I would still like to hear your reasons.

I'm thinking about adding more strong female character roles, simply because right now they're largely portrayed as weak or ineffective (not on purpose though, since there's a large war going on, and usually only men fight, so I accidentally ignored writing strong female roles. That doesn't mean that war doesn't exclude women from being put in danger too however). Let me know what you think of my suggested changes/additions.

I've been thinking about changing my hero's commander from a male to a female (although another problem is that he currently doesn't do terribly much anyway. I'll fix this soon). I just think it's kind of cool to have the hero be a subordinate to a female character (and a powerful one at that). I don't know why, but when I picture "Jupiter Fleet", I keep seeing a female in charge of the fleet rather than a male character. Might be cause the flagship is called the ISS Europa (Ivonian Star Ship. Yeah yeah, I know, Jupiter is the Roman version of Zeus in Greek mythology).

The hero's girlfriend is currently kind of passive and doesn't do much, but she will play a vital role, so I've made her braver, more active, and smarter (she helps solve many of the problems the hero and his friends face while exploring some ruins). I don't want her being entirely independent, but I certainly want her doing a lot more rather than "just being the hero's girlfriend".

When the hero is assigned to Gecko Squadron (the squadron assigned to protect Jupiter Fleet. Yeah, I have weird names don't I hehe), he runs into an ex there (this idea spawned when I was writing on some backstory for the hero and his current girlfriend). Should be pretty interesting to see what develops from that. She too, will be pretty strong on her own, but will need the hero's help from time to time (and vice versa, as she'll end up saving him too).

Do you think if I did these changes, it would affect my novel too much (negatively that is. And yeah I know, make sure the story is an enjoyable read)? I think it would help to make the book a better read, by both men and women, and everyone can have someone to look up to in the book.

[Saanen]

I think your changes sound positive, and you're doing them for the right reasons. That is, if you were to think, "Oh, I need a strong female character" and write one in who basically didn't contribute much to the story, that would be bad, but it sounds like you're thinking more along the lines of "A strong female character would enhance this story." That's good, and probably true as well. As you seem to have already noticed, if you do change your hero's commander to female it'll change the characters' attitudes and interplay and will probably make it that much more interesting for the reader. I don't much care about the sexes of characters as long as a book is good, but I could never understand why a writer wouldn't at least choose to throw in some sexual tension by having an important character be female (or male, if all the other main characters are female). There's so much you can do with the social interplay of males and females, particularly in situations where the normal social roles don't apply (such as war).

[Susan Gable]

Ivonia, I don't know if you're a Sci-Fi (the tv Channel, and the SF genre <G>) fan, but the channel has remade an old television series, Battlestar Galactica. They took several lead characters and turned them into females. I was quite upset about it at first, but now, I've got to tell you, I think it's worked out well. It really has added a whole new dimension to the characters' interaction.

So I think it's a great idea for you to try it. If you don't like it in the end, you can always change it back. (Don't forget to save the original version. <G>)

Susan G.

[maestrowork]

I was just going to mention BSG as well. They've done a good job and added a lot of complexity + sexual tension by changing some of the key characters into women. The thing to watch out though: don't change the character just because you want to, and also, once you change them, the dynamics would be different...

It sounds like a major rewrite to me. So good luck.

[katdad]

If you're writing realistic SF, then you should have females in the military, equal to men (except of course for pure physical strength).

If your story is meant to be audacious or a spoof, like Starship Trooper, then you may wish to only have females as subservient, as a joke. That will however definitely take a fine hand at satire.

[veinglory]

In a serious SF book if all the females are basically damsel it *does* annoy me. I would rather there simply be no female characters than have them be passive or in constant need to rescue. I am totally happy to identify with make heros but wimpy women destroy my enjoyment of the book.

However I also dislike it when writer solve this problem by just punching up a female role (like they often do in the movies). Up-written females still tend not to work as the plot was not written with a role for them so they are left hiss and puffing but not acheiving anything. The suggestion of making an existing character female is often a good one--in movies this was done for the Alien movies. Sigourney Weaver just went for a male role and got it. Oh the joy of a female character that isn't all about being female (ball busting, love interest, sex object, having a chip on her shoulder etc etc)--jusy being female and doing the job.

[Danger Jane]

Tough one.

Although I find it rather irritating when people (critics, generally) read overly-much into the gender choice for main/supporting characters. A balance is good.

[sassandgroove]

My two cents, If you imagine the leader as Female then I think when you write the story, it will come across more believable to write it the way you imagine it, with the character female. Your ideas sound well thought out. It sounds to me more like you have a couple characters that happen to be female that need to be fleshed out better, which is good; not that you are adding females just to add them. That would be bad.

[Silverhand]

I think balance is definately needed between the sexes. However, many modern authors take balance and flip it sideways, making it either women are wusses OR women are these *** kicking 102lb monsters.

Personally, give me some balance. Make them smart...make them beleiveable with real problems. Please dont make them be 100 lbs and constantly beating the hell out of men who are 7 feet tall, weigh 300 lbs, and are masters in kung'fu :)