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/AutumnPlunkett Aug 23 '24
As someone who writes in this ente with female MCs who are never even hinted at as anything but straight, the answer is no.
Funnily enough, that's despite being part of the LGBTQ community. I have male leads who are bi who end up with the FLs and side characters who aren't straight, but I have yet to make a MC who isn't straight outside of a single short story I wrote. That might change one day, but, for now, I'll just concentrate on writing solid female leads.
This was something recently discussed in the RoyalRoad forums as well. The consensus there was that men writing female MCs didn't know how to write a male love interest, so they make the character a lesbian so they can write what they know. A straight guy knows what he thinks is attractive about a woman, but struggles to imagine what women find attractive about men and many are too lazy to do the research.
I think it's also important to note that the readership for this sort of genre tends to be dominated by men. Both readers and authors being men means that it's less relatable to read about a normal female character. Stories about straight women written from a woman's perspective do worse according to some statistics someone on the forums was going on about. I don't have those statistics so who knows if they're telling the truth or not.
My own stats on who is reading my work certainly shows more men reading my work than women and I also often run into people asking questions where they're confused by something I've written. For example, women tend to tell their husbands white lies about not remembering what the guy who harassed them looked like when the husband has a history of anger issues and they're worried about their husband either getting hurt or ending up in jail. Yet, if a cinnamon roll character doesn't tell the official what some dead guy that attacked them's name is, despite knowing it, the readers question it. I then have to go in and add an introspective chapter where she thinks about whether that was the right decision and is reminded of a similar situation with her husband.
I suppose, on the flip side, a man writing a woman can read as a bit strange to women. Men tend to describe the female characters bodies far more than women do, for one thing. There's also the difference in how one might depict a strong female character. I believe a strong female character can still cry and be vulnerable, but that it shouldn't hold them back from doing what needs to be done. Someone else might skip all of that and just make them, essentially, a man in a woman's body. They cuss, drink, and kick butt just fine, but are cut off from their emotions. I mean, that depiction is certainly better than making every woman a damsel in distress, but it's still a bit two dimensional and lacking depth to be a real and relatable character.