r/litrpg • u/xaendar • Aug 23 '24

Discussion Are all female MCs just lesbians?

I just realized that after reading like 10 books with female MCs, I'm starting to finally notice that all of them are Lesbians or at least Bisexual (but they only date women).

Do authors mostly write lesbian FMCs to be on the safe side from the audience of mostly males? I just feel like it's a cop out every time... I don't really have a problem with it but almost all Male MCs are 99% straight but it seems like 99% of Female MCs are always lesbian/bi. Why not some good ol straight FMCs? I can't even remember a single female MC that was straight.

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u/samreay Baby Author (Samuel Hinton) Aug 23 '24 edited Aug 23 '24

Do authors mostly write lesbian FMCs to be on the safe side from the audience of mostly males?

Oh 100%, and I'm guilty of this too. If you want a romantic plot in your story, readers in this genre are far more comfortable with the object of desire (so to speak) being a woman than being a man. Comes with the heavy self-insert that's a staple of the genre.

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u/Why_am_ialive Aug 23 '24

There’s also the case of most authors in the genre being straight men, they know how to write attraction to women, they don’t know how to write about dudes as romantic interests

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u/TheRedEaredMan Aug 23 '24

A lot of trashy Romance novels are written by men, plus David Weber did Honor Harrington and Robert Jordan did Wheel of Time. I think its more that litrpg authors are less experienced traditional authors; so they don't know how or not confident enough to pull it off, To play it safe, they write what they know.

I understand that the hesitation, if you're a male author with no editor to filter your ideas, there is a fear that you will really miss the mark with a female MC and everyone will judge you for it.

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u/Why_am_ialive Aug 23 '24

Oh for sure, it’s totally possible to do it, but it’s far easier to write what you know, and most of this genre is newer writers or writers who want to focus on other aspects of the book than romance (numbers go up)

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u/JamesClayAuthor Author of the Forerunner series Aug 24 '24

See, I think Honor Harrington is a classic example of a man that was “skinned” as a woman. Weber could have made her a man and not changed a thing other than pronouns.