Calling all women

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

Possibly it has to do with the youth of the writer - young men do tend to write more about being a young man, not having that much experience of women! While young women tend to write about idealised men/boys when they create a male character. That's just from my experience of teaching writing.

That could be a very interesting topic for a teacher/tutor - how well does Tolkien write from a female point of view? Not much use for examining The Hobbit, but if Fordim decides to teach LotR he has a ready made topic with a gender slant.

That's a fascinating observation, Lal, for it suggests that male students write merely out of 'historical accuracy' while female students are the truly creative writers.

On the other hand, and not to disparage your experience (I wasn't aware you are a teacher, Lal, or had taught at any rate), the research and the writing I have seen does not suggest that female students write "idealised men/boys" with they write from a male POV (at least in North America). Far from it.

It is still the case that most literature students see is literature which foregrounds male protagonists. Thus female students read more about male characters than male students read about female characters. And it is still very challenging for teachers to get male students to read literature with female protagonists. Thus, there is still the norm or ethos that the important stories and the most privileged forms of literature deal with male POV.

I still think that a classroom of bright female students, when given a syllabus such as Professor Hedgethistle has apparently organised, will at some point decide to have a bit of sport with the curriculum. Unless of course our esteemed BarrowDowns "pullster" is indeed pulling our legs.