Do readers' gender play a part on who their favorite characters are?

[ARYa_Nym]

Hmm, IA. I like Kvothe the Bloodless because of that. He will protect the weak one minute and the next he'll scare your ass so bad he'll have you praying.

I guess Arya is that type of character. It's weird because I usually hate child characters especially on t.v. and in movies but I love her as well as Egg who is like a male version of her but lacks her ruthlessness.

I like Drogon and Nymeria too the most out of the animals. They act like real wild animals. They remind you that wild animals aren't "pets" and they can't be messed with.

[RhaenysBee]

Of course.

Gender plays a part in everything.

That's not sexism or anything like that. Just biology or God.

[King of Winters]

Well you can say that for me. Arya is my favourite female character but she's 7th on my favourite character list.

But that's not to say I'm sexist or or anything, it's that's just how my favourites are.

[David Selig]

I've never understood why most people seem to care so much about "identifying with" and "relating to" characters. For me one of the best things about fiction is being in the heads of people radically different from myself who allow me to see a much different PoV. That's why I tend to prefer the female characters when the writer has a clue how to write them.

[Old-Growth]

Krawkens.

By budding perhaps? "The Victarion he ain't no human being" from "The Drowned God Save the Victarion" by the Euronites.

[Kolantero]

And are there some characters with more male or female fans than others?

Personally, I don't think it plays a big part. Cersei and Sansa are in my top 5 of favorite characters, but being a guy, I've had some curious responses from other people when I tell them, saying that they think they are characters that mostly women like.

Thoughts?

I'd say it certainly does. Just looking at the forum you can see different numbers between genders in Sansa fans (mostly female), Tyrion fans (mostly male), Cercei fans (mostly female), Stannis fans (mostly male) and probably more, I'm just pointing out the (imo) most predominant

Doesn't mean ofcourse that there are no male Sansa fans or no female Stannis fans.

[Free Northman]

Personally, I've never found a male protagonist that I felt was propertly written by a female author. I can't speak for females, but I assume that they often feel the same about female protagonists written by male authors.

There's just something I find to be a bit "off" when reading from the POV of a male protagonist in a female author's work. Which makes perfect sense, I would think. I can write about the feeling that a woman experiences when seeing a man she falls in love with, but I've never eperienced it myself, so I will never know if I get it absolutely spot on.

Similarly when a woman writes about a man's experience.

I feel quite strongly about this, as it has held true pretty much in every book I've read. That's why I personally tend to prefer books written by male authors. Not because they are better. But because the characters I identify with are written more accurately, in my experience.

[Neumond]

Yes, I've noticed it happens in other sites (I won't say names), that characters are almost strictly assigned to men and women. Some cases I've seen, for instance are:

- "Greyjoys are badasses, so they're for men. Tyrells are crafty and like roses, so they're for women."

- "Arya is for men, Sansa for women"

- "Stannis is for men, Dany for women"

It's like the Happy Meal toys at McDonald's with these things :stillsick:

I actually should check my gender again. Perhaps I missed something last time I did :drunk:.

I always thought men have problems with relating to female characters while women are used to relate to male characters. (I blamed the ridiculous female characters in most literature...)

But I´m very glad to be proven wrong by the users of this forum.

I do like Arya, Bran, Davos, Asha, Jon, Sam and Dany without a real favourit. (I do like Melisandre as well but she had not enough chapters to really list her here...)

As you can see, gender isn´t the deciding thing for me...

[jons nissa]

i think gender CAN influence preferences but doesn't HAVE to. i think age is another factor that can influence character preference. i've always thought it would be interesting to see demo info on forum posters and correlate it to their character preference.

[ambi76]

Because of the usual utter lack of queer characters I tend to latch on the ones I can get. Bambi Forever!11! I also like "handless and noseless the Lannister boys" and Sansa (actually just got into her because I got curious why so many seemed to hate her). I'm not too fond of the "Tomboy" characters, but Brienne grew on me (she's a special one indeed). I'm also one of the few Catelyn admirers (the living version). I like me some mama-bear, even if she goes a bit overboard at times.

[Eating My Wings]

I don't know? I tend to, in general, like female and queer characters more. My favorite characters are Sansa, Brienne, Dany, Renly, Courtney Penrose, Loras, Margery, Sam and Dunk.

Eta and Cersei.

He is queer :stunned: That changes my whole reading of the character.

[fiekie]

I'm pretty sure your personality, upbringing, beliefs and life experiences count more than whether or not you have dangly bits.

However, if you've been taught to appreciate certain gender-related qualities or to oppose certain gender stereotypes, that may affect your interpretation of a character and his/her actions.

[Roose The Weddingcrasher]

Personally, I find it very hard to identify with female characters and must admit that the if the same actions are carried out by different genders, I will judge them differently :frown5: . Most of my favorite characters are male and most of my least favourite characters are female.

I comes to mind, that when I was reading Wheel fo Time, i found myself hating all the female characters. Then realisation hit me and I was really angry at the author for depicting them in such a sexist way, if you have read more then the first 3 books, it is enevitable that you'll notice the sexism is lurking at every corner whenever men and women interact. Women are terribly sexist towards men (no opportunity for it is left out!!) and vis versa. It's horrible, although part of the greater picture of the effects of the BReaking of the World and male magic being tainted etc.

Obviously that's not exactly the case with Martin, but still, maybe, just maybe, he isn't that neutral.

[Lala]

I've never understood why most people seem to care so much about "identifying with" and "relating to" characters. For me one of the best things about fiction is being in the heads of people radically different from myself who allow me to see a much different PoV. That's why I tend to prefer the female characters when the writer has a clue how to write them.

For me, at least, it's because I almost never see characters like me in fantasyland - they're almost always badass Arya-types or magical Dany-types - girls like me are usually only main characters in stories like Sex and the City. So when a story has these almost unbelievably normal women who are not only interesting, but well-developed, I will latch onto them :)

Personally, I've never found a male protagonist that I felt was propertly written by a female author. I can't speak for females, but I assume that they often feel the same about female protagonists written by male authors.

There's just something I find to be a bit "off" when reading from the POV of a male protagonist in a female author's work. Which makes perfect sense, I would think. I can write about the feeling that a woman experiences when seeing a man she falls in love with, but I've never eperienced it myself, so I will never know if I get it absolutely spot on.

Similarly when a woman writes about a man's experience.

I feel quite strongly about this, as it has held true pretty much in every book I've read. That's why I personally tend to prefer books written by male authors. Not because they are better. But because the characters I identify with are written more accurately, in my experience.

Martin does a fairly believable job with his female protagonists - he certainly does a better job writing women than say ... Stephanie Meyer who is a woman. Maybe Stephanie Meyer isn't a human. That would explain her extreme inability to create believable human beings.

[Nacht en Ontij]

It's only normal to sympathize with characters who, in some way 'are' like the reader. Is gender important? Not for me, although for me a certain shallowness comes into play as well. Why lie? I like to read about a character like Taena Merryweather because she's a scheming, yet hot woman and I happen to like hot women, Tyrion that I am.

I also like Tyrion. Tyrion has brains. I like intelligence a lot and if that intelligence is flawed, so much the better because I'm flawed too.

I really like Brienne. A very powerful character because of her steadfastness. Naivité or not, I admire people with staunch moral values even though they know it's [ending] bad for them. I really can imagine bonding with her.

Conclusion: in the end, I think it's just a matter of 'would I be able to hang out with them?'

[space]

dont think so..as a guy my favorite povs are tyrion cersei dany davos...and my least favorite characters are brienne and bran...pretty equal opportunity like/dislike

[TepidHands]

Obviously that's not exactly the case with Martin, but still, maybe, just maybe, he isn't that neutral.

I don't find him neutral at all, and that's one of the things that gnaws at the back of my reader's mind. And his depictions of sex acts are off-putting to me (Myrish swamp, pink masts, etc.) Then again, he's not alone. George Lucas created an entire universe with "Star Wars" and couldn't write romantic dialog for crap.

[manting]

yes specifically in one case - Sansa - havent met a man yet who is a big sansa fan (not saying that they arent out there) and it seems like only women like her. Read the "Is there something wrong with Sandor" thread and read the posts - its all about Sansa and how kick ass she is and it is only women doing the writing - when I proposed a different pov on the character (that she possess no agency and is a pawn moved about by the more powerful) I was told I was "stupid" and needed to "reread" the books.

[David Selig]

For me, at least, it's because I almost never see characters like me in fantasyland - they're almost always badass Arya-types or magical Dany-types - girls like me are usually only main characters in stories like Sex and the City. So when a story has these almost unbelievably normal women who are not only interesting, but well-developed, I will latch onto them :)

I totally understand that (I was somewhat rhetorically exagerating in the beginning of my first post).

But as a straight, white, somewhat bookish man I am way overrepresented in fiction, especially SFF. There are so many examples of this type of character I got bored of it long ago and now I am more into other types of characters. Not that I can't like a character of the Samwell type (probably the one who resembles me the most in ASOIF of the main ones) when written well, but I prefer others in general, more diverse character types.

[manting]

I don't find him neutral at all, and that's one of the things that gnaws at the back of my reader's mind. And his depictions of sex acts are off-putting to me (Myrish swamp, pink masts, etc.) Then again, he's not alone. George Lucas created an entire universe with "Star Wars" and couldn't write romantic dialog for crap.

Remember that there are like 2 women in the ENITRE Star Wars universe. Leia and that rebel commander we see for like 1 minute. The rest of the females (in the original 3 movies I dont count the 2nd trilogy) are all literally whores and Leia is turned into a whore - so Lucus 's message in the original trilogy - Women are whores (was he going through a divorce during this period or something?). So I would say Martin writes women awesome - Cersei is well written, Brienne is great, the sand snakes, arya the total baddass pre-teen and the hero, conquerer, and tactitcian that is Dany. Sansa sux but you cant win them all