We’ve all read books where women are prizes to be won or objects to be consumed. Many male writers describe their femme characters in flagrantly sexist ways, and women on Twitter are tired of it. The “describe yourself like a male author would” challenge has women parodying how men write about them, and the tweets are golden.
The Daily Dot writes that last week, author Gwen C. Katz tweeted a passage written by a male author who claimed to have “an authentic female protagonist.” In reality, it’s incredibly cringe-worthy:
“I sauntered over, certain he noticed me. I’m hard to miss, I’d like to think — a little tall (but not too tall), a nice set of curves if I do say so myself, pants so impossibly tight that if I had had a credit card in my back pocket you could read the expiration date. The rest of my outfit wasn’t that remarkable, just a few old things I had lying around. You know how it is.”
What the actual fuck? No one’s inner monologue is remotely like that. This led to a challenge from Whitney Reynolds, who co-created the podcast I Haven’t Seen That.
Image via @whitneyarner
The results are hilarious. They also demonstrate the often-racist treatment women characters of color receive at the hands of white, male authors.
Image via @janecaseyauthor
Image via @ashleyn1cole
Image via @jenniferweiner
Image via @kelechnekoff
Image via @yesitshanna
Image via @MaraWilson
Gwen C. Katz followed up on her original tweet saying that it is possible for male writers to write about women. Kate Leth tweeted some pretty solid advice for male writers:
Image via @kateleth
The way men write about women reflects what they think about women. If you’re writing this booby bullshit, maybe you need to examine how you think about women.
Top image: Fickr/aehdeschaine
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