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The opposite of this rule, that both men and women identify with a male protagonist, but only women can identify with a female protagonist, has long been used as a standard pretext for focusing exc...
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#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T05:18:58Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/30684 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
by
Chris Sunami
·
2019-12-08T05:18:58Z (almost 5 years ago)
The opposite of this rule, that both men and women identify with a male protagonist, but only women can identify with a female protagonist, has [long been used as a standard pretext](https://thehathorlegacy.com/why-film-schools-teach-screenwriters-not-to-pass-the-bechdel-test/) for focusing exclusively on male protagonists in movies and books. The logic is that you halve your audience with a woman in the lead. [Similar arguments](http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-black-movies-global-audience-myth-20170324-story.html) are often made against films with black and other minority leads. However, [the science indicates](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-dollar-and-cents-case-against-hollywoods-exclusion-of-women/) this is entirely spurious folk wisdom invented to justify internalized prejudices.
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2017-10-06T14:20:38Z (about 7 years ago)
Original score: 2