#shes got woman-written-by-a-man syndrome tm

[mensfrightsactivist]

what book are you talking about? 👀 I always love hearing people vent about badly written women in literature!

Okay anon I had to go pull out my computer because I wanted to give this a like, ~*serious*~ reply. This monstrosity got its own AMC series according to the front cover so yay, more ~*strong*~ female characters written by men in print and on screen! something i’m sure we’re al excited for.

It’s called NOS4A2 by Joe Hill. First of all, the title is obnoxious as hell. Without giving spoilers, the title of the book refers to a vanity plate of a ~spooky car~ (it’s a horror book) and I’m listening as an audiobook at work so hearing the narrator spell it all out every time they wanna reference the car is super clunky. That’s beside the point but with a title like NOS4A2 (which if you’re wondering is supposed to spell Nosferatu, took me a while) I feel the need to explain. Also it’s not even remotely about vampires so if you’re gonna read it don’t go into it expecting anything along the lines of the classic film.

~*some light spoilers ahead for your viewing pleasure*~

Now the main character, first of all, goes by Vic instead of Victoria, is written to be clearly “not like the other girls”, is an alternative super-hottie who’s just the TINIEST bit “unstable” (enough to make her hot and vulnerable of course, not scary), and the only men she’s ever loved are 

her wife-beating, abusive alcoholic father who left her in the care of her ~*eeeevil mother*~

the “morbidly obese” (book’s description not mine) father of her child who’s described as being greasy, having a scraggly beard, and makes more nerd and superwholock-type references than 2012 Tumblr

and her son who she’s too emotionally distant to wanna stick around for. 

we’re to understand she’s literally had no other relationships with men ever which i think is worth noting, too

Basically it feels like the writer thought to himself “Gee who would I be if I had soft skin and tits and long hair” and just decided that would suffice as his definition of ‘woman’ and let it shape the entire main character and therefore basically the entire plot. Oh also, she’s bisexual but it’s only mentioned like twice and in fairly lewd context if i’m remembering right. And then she writes off her own attraction to women by saying she was “more attracted to men anyway so it doesnt matter” or something along those lines. (Remember I’m listening to the audiobook during work so my memory isn’t perfect)

There were points in the book where it’s pretty clear her dad’s a piece of shit and still she ~*loves him more than anyone*~ and there are supposed to be these big emotional scenes where i’m just laughing out loud at work because it seems so fucking implausible. idk maybe thats just me/my history with the idea of dads but like.. it was truly comical sometimes

like here’s the thing if you’re writing a main character make sure you know how a person of that demographic would think and behave. i would NEVER assume that i know how cis men think and therefore would never make a cis man the main character of a work of fiction i was writing. that’s not to say men shouldn’t be included in my stories obviously! but i don’t have to be inside the mind of a side character to write a side character. it’s super clear that this guy just doesn’t understand the female perspective in the slightest idk

ANYWAY. To its credit, the syntax was great, vocabulary varied, the story itself had a LOT of potential to be really cool, especially on screen i can imagine it translating really well, and as a book in the horror genre i think it’s pretty successfully horrific in plot. on the other hand, there’s a lot of explicit r*pe, g*re, vi*lence, ch*ld ab*se mentions, ableism done in the actual grossest way, and the author clearly doesnt understand/might hate women so....... 

this got really rambly and i’m sorry! i just like.... got really passionate about this book because i wasted 18 hours of my life on it! and it seemed really good at the beginning when the protag was a kid! but like halfway through the book she’s an adult and i’m like “wow who writes women like this???”

#Anonymous #i wish i had a physical copy of the book and i could pull out solid references but like #trust me #shes got woman-written-by-a-man syndrome tm #edit: im watching the show now wisj me luck