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Entertainment

Greta Jaruševičiūtė

55 Times Male Authors Proved They Barely Know Anything About Women (New Pics)

Alison Bechdel Haruki Murakami Jane Austen Leo Tolstoy Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

Have you ever read a book and thought, "Women's bodies don't really work like that" or "I've never seen a woman actually do anything like this"? Well, you wouldn't be alone. For most of history, writing books has been an exclusively male endeavor. In the U.S., women were legally allowed to publish books under their names only since the late 19th century.

So, perhaps it's not surprising that a lot of the depictions of women in books by men are somewhat... questionable? The "Men Writing Women" subreddit collects the most absurd and ridiculous examples of women badly written by men.

Haruki Murakami is a frequent offender on the subreddit, but there are loads of other male authors who can't conjure up a complex and realistic female character without objectifying her. And here are the funniest and most distasteful examples readers have come across lately!

#1 Actually My Chest Tits Tittily

Image credits: cricketbug94

#2 An Antique Call-Out

Image credits: OptmstcExstntlst

#3 Pen Writing Women

Image credits: dwaynetheaakjohnson

There's this thing called the Bechdel Test. Many might already be familiar with it, but here goes: in 1985, cartoonist Alison Bechdel came up with her personal criteria for whether or not she was watching a movie. She listed three main requirements:

The movie had to have at least two female characters;
The two female characters had to interact and talk to each other;
And this conversation had to be about something other than a man.

Naturally, many audience- and critically-acclaimed films failed her test, among which were the original Star Wars trilogy, Blade Runner, and even Breakfast at Tiffany's. But today, Bechdel agrees that her test might be too rigid and a disappointingly low bar for movies and books to pass.

#4 [drawing Dragons By Sandra Staple] The Dragon Gender Norms

Image credits: Sir_Suffer

#5 Murakami Murakami-Ing (Hard-Boiled Wonderland And The End Of The World, Haruki Murakami)

Image credits: Weak-Mushroom-1225

#6 In A Doctor Who Kids Book, Of All Things

Image credits: curtain5

Just because there are two women talking in a movie about something other than men doesn't automatically make it impressive or culturally significant. "If you think about it, they're pretty superficial criteria," Bechdel told NPR in 2023.

"It would be easy to make a movie that fulfilled them in name but kind of missed the point. There can be movies that completely fail the Bechdel Test that are great feminist movies or at least have a feminist perspective." She names the movie Fire Island as an example. "The men talked about women writers in the movie," she said. "The whole movie was based, like, on a Jane Austen plot. So I thought it was pretty feminist in its way."

#7 [the Way Of The Superior Man By David Dieda] - How Many Isms Can He Fit In One Book?

Image credits: nataliescarlett

#8 Thought This Sub Would Enjoy This 😂

Image credits: starkwolves95

#9 "She's Learned Her Lesson...and She Loved It!" [just Married #58]

Image credits: Zealousideal_Art2159

In trying to explain this deficiency demonstrated by male authors, many people revert to simplistic generalizations. "Men just aren't able to empathize the way women can," they say. "They can't just put themselves in the shoes of a woman and read her mind!"

But there's a lot of sexism in such sentiments. Aside from not giving men enough credit for being empathetic, it also ignores the historical side of publishing: perhaps women just had more insight into the male psyche because most of the books they read growing up were written by men?

#10 Is It Wrong For Me To Be Critical Of The Way Arya Stark Was Made To Say, “Most Girls Are Idiots” In Game Of Thrones Season 2?

Image credits: petitefairy99

#11 Nietschze The Incel

Image credits: paperfoampit

#12 [gray Matters] By [william Hjortsberg]. Found This In A Retro Book Shop, Opened It To A Random Page And Was Assaulted With This Synonym

Image credits: gruhukens

At least this is what columnist Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett suggests in her opinion piece for The Guardian, too. "It isn't that these male authors are unable to empathise, it is that they haven't bothered, or needed to," she writes. "How could they know, when we are only really near the beginning of exploring its depths ourselves in (published, respected) writing? Do we expect telepathy?"

#13 [avengers: Age Of Ultron] That Time Marvel Conflated Infertility With Being A Monster

Image credits: drkgodess

#14 Nostalgia Check: Comics Edition! Back When Superheroes Needing Saving From Their Writers

Image credits: drkgodess

#15 I Know Grrm Is Not Perfect On The Topic, But He Truly Understands That "Strong Women" Don't Need To Wear Armor Or Despise Traditionally Feminine Conventions And Skills (A Clash Of Kings, George R.r. Martin)

Image credits: LothorBrune

"So much of femininity is unspoken," Cosslett continues. "Moving through the world as a woman, the way you are viewed and treated, your emotions, your approach to your body (not to mention its private, shameful functions and rebellions) involve subtleties and complexities that are often unarticulated, even sometimes between women themselves."

#16 The Case For Marrying An Older Man By Grazie Sophia Christine

Image credits: HobbyPlodder

#17 Script Excerpt From Death Proof (2007) By Quentin Tarantino

Image credits: Bunraku_Master_2021

#18 Jitterbug Perfume By Tom Robbins - Sorry, As Red As What Now??

Image credits: deCantilupe

That's not to say that all women protagonists written by a man are bad or insufficient. Leo Tolstoy created one of the most tragically complex and compelling portraits of a woman in literature in Anna Karenina. Gustave Flaubert criticized how 19th-century French society reduced women to wives, homemakers, and etiquette-obeying ladies in Madame Bovary.

#19 Posted In A Feminine Focused Subreddit, But Eventually Op Admits They Are A Male, Writing Creepy Sexual Fantasies! He Then Follows Up By Asking Responders About How They Feel Upon “The Male Gaze”

Image credits: CarbideMagpie

#20 (An Archdemon's Dilemma: How To Love Your Elf Bride) Its Not Quite Rise Of The Shield Hero, But The Concept Is The Same

Image credits: CapAccomplished8072

#21 At Age 35, She Can Feel Her Breasts Sag Audibly In The Night. [letters From The Dead By Campbell Black]

Image credits: TheCervus

Some male authors get undeserved criticism for their portrayals of women. F. Scott Fitzgerald, for example, gets a lot of flak for having written Daisy as a shallow socialite in The Great Gatsby. But some readers might forget to consider the context in which Daisy lived. She may as well have been a prisoner of the societal expectations and values she'd been brought up with.

Beauty and social status are the most important things to her because she has been conditioned to think these are the only qualities that matter in a woman. But that doesn't mean she's not intelligent or observant – it's only one of the masks she's putting on. She even says she hopes her daughter will be a fool because she believes "that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool."

#22 [comic Excerpt] Superman Kissing A 14 Year Old (Superman & Batman: Generations By John Byrne)

Image credits: Xano2113

#23 I Do Think That Mediaeval Poets Were The Og Men Writing Women

Image credits: AlfredusRexSaxonum

#24 Some Inspiration For Any Aspiring Writers Out There

Image credits: cricketbug94

But let's not say that only men don't know how to write compelling characters of the opposite gender. Women write unrealistic male characters, too! They mostly come from the romance genre. Romance book fans: how many times have you come across the trope of the tall, dark, and brooding hero and the heroine who "fixes" him (think Fifty Shades and many YA male protagonists)?

#25 I Could Save The Day If I Didn't Have A Girl Brain! (Avengers #34, Lee/Heck)

Image credits: AmazingKitsune

#26 Thoughts As A Woman, During An Apocalypse, As You Starve To Death❤️ "Run" By Blake Crouch

Image credits: honeymangomoon

#27 An Old Tom And Jerry Comic. Worst Thing I've Seen Today

Image credits: DragonsAreEpic

At the same time, there are plenty of examples of women writing complex, compelling male characters. J.K. Rowling was able to write from the perspective of a male from childhood to adulthood and did it pretty accurately. Even early English novelists Jane Austen, Charlotte and Emily Brontë wrote their female characters as full of contradictions, not just on the good/bad and dreamy/mean scale.

#28 1968 Femicin Ad - "I Suffered From Menstrual Cramps."

Image credits: almostselfrealised

#29 Vonnegut Does It For Men Too! (Cat’s Cradle)

Image credits: Ryker46290

#30 Anti-Suffragette Political Cartoons From The Early 1900s Are Wild

Image credits: drkgodess

What are your favorite examples of men writing women badly, Pandas? Have you ever come across a description so ridiculous you couldn't help but laugh out loud? Share the wildest examples with us in the comments! And if you'd like to see even more cases of men failing to write women, check out our previous articles about the "Men Writing Women" subreddit here, here, and right here!

#31 This Is From The First Story Of The Women Of Marvel One-Shot That Just Came Out Today

Image credits: Extreme-Monk2183

#32 Women Writing Women

Image credits: Classic-Carpet7609

#33 I Will Acknowledge That Lok Had Its Flaws

But When It Came To Lgbt Relationships, Women Protagonists, Especially Female Poc Lgbt Protagonists? I Would Still Say That This Show Had To Walk So That Shows Like Spop, Toh, Or Rwby Could Run. You Have To Start Somewhere, And This Show Was Groundbreaking.