Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: busy

Cryptic Gender

Here's an interesting essay about characters whose gender is not revealed.

Now the fun part is, I have done all the things  here.  I've written male and female characters.  I've written around a dozen sex/gender identities.  Usually I specify them.  Occasionally I don't, and I have done that both deliberately and accidentally.  I've written non-binary genders.  I've even got one whose gender is explicitly identified as "I'm not telling."  All of those things matter.  But they don't matter to every story.  It's okay to get through one and realize that you haven't tagged the character's gender.  It's okay to specify something out of the ordinary, whether that affects the plot or is background parity.  Just know what you're doing.
Tags: gender studies, networking, reading, writing
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  • 1 comment
catsittingstill

catsittingstill

April 23 2014, 10:47:54 UTC 7 years ago

In my opinion it is okay to not tag a character's gender in a story--but you want to be aware how people will tend to fill that in. If you don't mind that a lot of your readers will assume the character is male, that's fine. But if you want people to perceive women, or ungendered characters, I think you're going to need to spell it out for a lot of readers.