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Q&A Is protagonist identification/empathy influenced by the reader's gender?

I had a discussion with someone who claimed she'd once read (though she couldn't remember the source) that men can identify and empathize with male as well as female protagonists, while women ident...

2 answers  ·  posted 8y ago by System‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:18:56Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/23244
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:18:56Z (over 4 years ago)
I had a discussion with someone who claimed she'd once read (though she couldn't remember the source) that men can identify and empathize with male as well as female protagonists, while women identify better with female protagonists (the claim being, they can certainly sympathize with male protagonists, but identification is harder).

To me, this seems like a gross and peculiar generalization (though it's hard to say more about it without knowing the source). Still, if it's hypothetically valid, it would create some odd dynamics in stories with a male protagonist and a female antagonist.

I was wondering if anyone has heard of anything related to that - if you also remember any possible source, it'd be a bonus.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2016-06-05T05:02:09Z (almost 8 years ago)
Original score: 4