Do male authors ever write about average women?Female characters are almost unfailingly beautiful in books authored by men :D Infact, they are generally a perfect package of great looks, high intelligence and supreme confidence. I think male authors have a very black-and-white perception of women. To them, women are either angels from heaven or villains sent to break their hearts. Take Vanity Fair for example: Amelia and Becky Sharp are two extremes of womankind. One is too soft and innocent to defend even herself and the other, too manipulating and scheming. If there is one grouse I have with Dickens, it is his portrayal of women. Of course, it is a recent development!His heroines(Agnes Wickfield particularly) were my models of humanity. They were perfect in every way:kind, patient and loving. There was never a fault with them and they were incapable of hurting anyone. Indeed, they often put others before themselves. Now, I ask myself why!Why should women have to be angels who guide the hero of the novel to the path of righteousness?Women are as human as men and as liable to have their own weaknesses. We are all learning from life and though women's maternal instincts make them naturally kinder, they cannot, and need not, be flawless!
Female authors have often tried to battle this perception. They rarely write about perfect women. You either have Scarlett O'Hara's looks or Melanie Hamilton's character, rarely both. Their heroines are not demi-gods but real people like Elizabeth Bennet, Jane Eyre or Jo. I almost feel as if female authors are pleading with the world, through their characters, to see that women are a mixture of good and bad, virtues and vices. Their women are more complex and vulnerable and want to be accepted the way they are. And they don't always have to be good!
Let alone the characters, the authors themselves have had to encounter prejudice of this kind in the reception of their books. Female authors often used pseudonyms to hide their gender because they didn't want people's opinions of their work to be distorted by it. Jane Austen was one of the few who didn't and Virginia Woolf praises her for it. But the Bronte sisters weren't as lucky. People thought their books were vulgar because they were too open about feelings and passions than women had any right to be. Wuthering Heights was criticized as being coarse and Jane Eyre, too passionate. The world has surely come a long way since then. Female authors are not ostracized for being frank anymore but do women still have to shoulder the responsibility for perfect morality?I don't know..I'm still stuck in the 19th century.
Female authors have often tried to battle this perception. They rarely write about perfect women. You either have Scarlett O'Hara's looks or Melanie Hamilton's character, rarely both. Their heroines are not demi-gods but real people like Elizabeth Bennet, Jane Eyre or Jo. I almost feel as if female authors are pleading with the world, through their characters, to see that women are a mixture of good and bad, virtues and vices. Their women are more complex and vulnerable and want to be accepted the way they are. And they don't always have to be good!
Let alone the characters, the authors themselves have had to encounter prejudice of this kind in the reception of their books. Female authors often used pseudonyms to hide their gender because they didn't want people's opinions of their work to be distorted by it. Jane Austen was one of the few who didn't and Virginia Woolf praises her for it. But the Bronte sisters weren't as lucky. People thought their books were vulgar because they were too open about feelings and passions than women had any right to be. Wuthering Heights was criticized as being coarse and Jane Eyre, too passionate. The world has surely come a long way since then. Female authors are not ostracized for being frank anymore but do women still have to shoulder the responsibility for perfect morality?I don't know..I'm still stuck in the 19th century.
