Preference for main characters of one sex over the other?

If someone prefers a specific gender of main character, I don't care. That's their choice; some people just don't care to put themselves in the shoes of a certain gender.

There'll always be people who won't read a book, for whatever reason—be it genre, lack of interest in the storyline, or characters. Most works of fiction have more people who don't care for it than people who do care for it anyway.

sunandshadow said:

If someone said to you, "I prefer books with male main characters." What would you think? How about, "I avoid books with female main characters." Or the opposite - preferring books with female main characters, and/or avoiding books with male main characters.

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To me there's nothing wrong with a preference and if someone says they tend to prefer reading books about women or books about men I see no issue.

On the other hand, if they tell me they "avoid books with female main characters" or with male characters I will start to see them as being more close minded and I'll be more likely to suspect they do gender stereotyping (this based on my experience with people who I know who have said that).

sunandshadow said:

In the area of video games it's expected that the majority of gamers (but not all) have a fairly strong preference one way or the other. Many games choose to put a noticeable portion of their budget into giving the player a choice of playable characters because they feel players want this choice strongly enough to justify the cost. But for a novel which isn't interactive fiction, you can't just let the reader pick at the beginning. Does it matter if some readers choose not to buy or read a book based on the sex of the main character?

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I think it can, depending on their reasons for not doing so. They might be perpetuating faulty assumptions by avoiding the material that would correct their assumptions (for instance, if they avoid books about women because they assume all books about women are romances then they avoid ever reading a book about a woman which is not a romance and thus understanding these books exist).

sunandshadow said:

From the reader's perspective, if they know that they have a much higher success rate with one category of book than the other, it would be unstrategic to not take that data into account when trying to select what to read next. Is it different if you substitute the word "author" for the phrase "main character"?

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You mean is it different to say "I prefer books about men" than to say "I prefer books written by men"? or to say "I avoid books about women" as compared to "I avoid books written by women"? I think there's a huge difference. One actually has something to do with the content (the main character) at least. The other is based purely on the author's gender (or perceived gender) and is even more likely to be based on assumptions and stereotyping.

sunandshadow said:

If someone said to you, "I prefer books with male main characters." What would you think? ?

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That they are an idiot.

I'm not saying people don't do this, or the same thing in terms of authors, but I think it is beyond stupid.

I can't say I won't read books with female MCs, but I tend to be skeptical of them. I happen to have several authors who write female leads that I grab as soon as the next book comes out - but typically I find female characters uninteresting or downright irritating.

If that's dumb, so be it.

Well sdwwlker, hopefully you'll be grabbing mine some day. novel that is. (female MC, two in fact)

That seems kinda... random, arbitrary, and nonspecific to me, actually, like a reader being wary of stories where the MC has hairy toes or insisting on MCs who sleep on their sides instead of their backs. I'd figure it's their TBR list and they can construct it however they want, but I'm not sure how the random arbitrary nonspecific thing they're using to make selections could possibly impact a plot they'd otherwise like, and I'd wonder how many books they'd just love they wind up never even trying.

I say this as someone who's hardly guiltless. Once upon a time, I had such an allergy to things that were... horror of horrors... popular, I wouldn't touch Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone until a month before Prisoner of Azkaban's release, and I only picked it up then because it was the only thing in the school bookstore's fiction section that week that didn't look totally depressing. Boy, did I feel stupid when I discovered what a great book it was.

sunandshadow said:

If someone said to you, "I prefer books with male main characters." What would you think?

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I'd say, in a state of true eagerness: "H*** yeah, me too! Now there are two of us! Got any recs?" Because it's true. I prefer male MCs even though I'm a woman.

sunandshadow said:

Does it matter if some readers choose not to buy or read a book based on the sex of the main character?

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I have no problem with readers making a decision based on that. Because people make reading choices based on all kinds of reasons. For a non-reading example, I refuse to watch the James Bond movies just because I dislike womanizers--and more importantly, I hate the belief that since he saves the woman he gets to have her. Other people refuse to read the fantasy genre because "they want something real." (Can you tell I know someone like that?)

sunandshadow said:

Is it different if you substitute the word "author" for the phrase "main character"?

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It would leave me with a bad taste in my mouth, but honestly, people can choose to read what they want. But I'd likely avoid that person as much as possible in real life.

Jodi

If some one told me they want one over the other, I would be hard pressed not to ask them why. Mostly because there is often something deeper behind it. But i really wouldn't care beyond that. Personally, I don't care if the mc is male or female. And I would say my reading is split down the middle and choosing a book is entirely unrelated to the gender of the mc, but the plot.

I guess it would depend on why they felt that way, but I tend to have an easier time connecting with male MCs, especially in the old-fashioned, repressive societies so many fantasy novels take place in, so I'd understand why someone else might've turned that into a full-fledged preference.

Besides, the novel I'm querying has two MCs, one of each sex, so I'm covered both ways.

sunandshadow said:

It's not immediately obvious to me why it would be stupid for people to have a preference among types of main character. Do you feel the same way about other types of main characters, like an adult MC vs. a child MC? If I observe that over the past 10 years I have enjoyed 60% of books with adult main characters but only 40% of books with child main characters, wouldn't it be logical, and even smart, to focus my energies on seeking out new books with adult main characters?

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I guess because for me writing and story trump penis.

I read a lot of Stephen King, but that includes plenty of stories with a female MC. Ditto books like Rebecca. Should I prefer a different, weaker brooding haunted house story because, gee, the MC was male? No, i think that's silly. Everyone is free to buy what they choose, but yes, in the vacuum of any other clues or info, I'd start with the suspicion that person was an idiot, either captive to their own biases or not especially well-read

quicklime said:

No, i think that's silly. Everyone is free to buy what they choose, but yes, in the vacuum of any other clues or info, I'd start with the suspicion that person was an idiot, either captive to their own biases or not especially well-read

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But why does reading bias = idiocy? In that case, wouldn't a genre preference also equal a reading bias?

Jodi

I don't believe so, although you're free to argue the case. Genre deals with preference, gender plays to stereotypes--you may not care for potboilers but can you say you don't like women MC or men MC as though all men are rugged and stoic and women are shrinking violets? I'm not convinced you can unless you're stereotyping.

quicklime said:

but can you say you don't like women MC or men MC as though all men are rugged and stoic and women are shrinking violets? I'm not convinced you can unless you're stereotyping.

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I'm not sure I quite get your meaning here. Are you saying that the bias comes from a stereotype?

As a personal example, if I have two equally fascinating fantasy books to read/buy and one has a male MC and the other has a female, I'll buy/read the male MC. Why? Because I like to read about men more than women, and I attach to male characters more than I do female characters. I am biased, but I don't feel like an idiot Nor do I feel poorly read.

Jodi

"I prefer books with male/female main characters."
I would not think anything about this. I would just say, "Okay," and then get on with life.

"I avoid books with female/male main characters."
I would think they have some strange things going on in their heads. Maybe they think that books with female MCs are all one way while books with male MCs are all another? I really have no clue.

Overall, it doesn't matter. People are free to have whatever preferences they want. Personally, I don't care whether a MC is male, female, or something else entirely.

I tend to identify more easily with male protagonists, so yes, I guess I have a slight preference for them. It's a preference for that which is more familiar. That said, there are tons of amazing books that have female main characters, and I would never limit myself to reading only from the male perspective. Gender is a very minor, even negligible consideration. But I don't think it's wrong to be a little biased toward the familiar--otherwise it would also be wrong for immigrants to prefer immigrant stories, for Jews to have a slight bias in favor of Jewish protagonists, for LGBTQ readers to be more predisposed to reading about LGBTQ main characters, and so on.

I don't know because not once has someone told me that they prefer one gender of MC over the other. All I've heard was "Don't write a story like Twilight because both MC's are too perfect and Bella Swan is the best example of a weak and spineless FMC."

I think that it's my right as a reader to have my own preferences. It doesn't matter if I won't read your character because it's from a female POV or if it's in a genre I don't like. Maybe I like to read m/m erotika. Then, would it make sense that I don't like female POVs?

Freedom of speech. It goes both ways. You have the right to write whatever you want and I have the right not to read whatever you write.

I kinda prefer reading MMCs*. I like to see the inner workings of a bloke's mind (that's the sexy part, see), crush on them a little bit perhaps...

But I can't say I avoid books with FMCs. That would be silly, and I often enjoy them. I avoid books where the premise doesn't appeal, or the writing style.

Thinking about it, it probably depends what I'm in the mood for. But there's always time for a literary crush

People not reading a book because of the author's gender....that's stupid, but it goes on. A lot. Almost always due to stereotypes/preconceptions or 'I read this one book once and....' I've seen a fair few guys say they won;t read a UF book by a woman 'because it'll be that paranormal romance shit', or women who won't read books by a guy 'because they don't do people's emotions properly' or 'too violent'. Which is why men use pseudonyms in the Romance genre for starters, and some women use male or gender neutral pseudonyms in SFF.


* I prefer writing them too - for many and varied reasons, one of which is, it's easier not to put myself in there cos I R Not Bloke.

I'd think it's either (a) a simple preference or (b) the reader is a bit closed-minded.

If the latter, then in the case of female MCs I'd wonder whether the reader might be expecting a female mc to be preoccupied with romance/sex and shopping. I have a friend who assumes exactly that and who homes in on any glimmer of stereotypical behaviour she deems frivolous. She is all but incapable of enjoying even the most rounded of female MCs. Such a shame.

... doesn't really matter to me. I enjoy books with male or female leads equally well. Julie of the Wolves by Jean George was just as awesome as Hatchet by Paulsen, staring Brian Robeson. Overall, I probably prefer George over Paulsen to a small degree, but that's b/c she was a bit better of a writer and a bit more prolific.

Most readers will have some kind of preference in their reading lists. Any attempt to reach all readers will be a futile exercise. Since this thread comes from the writer's perspective, I think it is counter-productive to worry about this. We should focus on the stories we want to write and choose the best MC for that particular story. There will be some readers who will be attracted to a book by the gender of the MC. There will be some readers who will be attracted to a book by the storyline. And I certainly hope there will be some readers who may not prefer the gender of MC in a book, but still will be attracted by the story. All we can do is write the best story we can, choosing the best characters for that story. Some readers will like it and some won't.

A couple of my stories have male MCs and a couple have female MCs. In each case, the choice was made based on what the story called for.

I think it depends. Is this an ordinary reader expressing a preference? Then meh. Is it a reviewer from a major outlet who is part of the reason why books by women with FMCs are the least likely to get reviewed? Then it matters.