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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/33700
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/33700
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

### What the female reader expects to see is a good story without gender stereotypes or sexism.

Lauren's advice applies. Female readers are going to be very sensitive to sexist tropes and female stereotypes perpetuated by male-dominated religions, governments and other institutions, related to personal relationships, mathematical or scientific ability, physical weakness, their menstrual cycles, their roles in sex, or objectification; e.g. your female lead is the most desirable woman in the world!

Male authors sometimes give women power by having a man back her up; the queen is obeyed because the king says so, even if the king is elderly and weak as a kitten and could not fight his way out of a paper bag!

Avoid any fear of battle or injury greater than you'd give a male, and avoid tokenism (having ONE female in the central cast surrounded by men, with all other females in the story props or 'the normal females').

Like a male hero, a female hero should have flaws that cause her problems; a woman without any flaws that is better than men or women in everything is boring.

But flaws are NOT disabilities: Flaws must be something she can overcome mentally, like arrogance, not things like physical size or height. Both genders **can** have disabilities, but the female disabilities should not be _relative_ to a man or involve female stereotypes, like a lack of courage, or hormonal fluctuations, or a desire to be nurturing or to be a parent.

And finally, don't try the excuse of a **lesbian** female hero thinking that this lets you write her as you would a male hero. It doesn't. Presume the one and only difference for a lesbian is that she prefers women for sex. Do not presume that single commonality with heterosexual men makes her one of them.

Original score: 14