What are the most common mistakes you observe when male authors create women characters?

Writing about our boobs from an aesthetic perspective. The only time I think about mine are when it's too hot out or my shoulders are aching from my bra straps.

I just read the most incredible novel, Moonglow by Micheal Chabon. It was thoughtful, moving, had something to say about people and relationships and society— and stopped almost every time we saw a woman character, no matter how small, to describe her boobs.

There's a moment where the main character sees his wife (who is otherwise a well developed character) for the first time after her being in inpatient, him being in prison, the suspense built up to be about longing and marriage and obligation, and the first thing we hear is about the shape of her boobs! It's shockingly common and a bizzare tic of male writers, even good ones.

>guy that didn't see his wife for a long time is horny

if shes the protagonist shes always "different" from other girls usally at the cost of making every other woman suck. if shes supporting character her story is completely focused on the men in her life. if shes the antagonist shes either a seductress or an old witch.

>story is more focused on the main character

It's usually the big obvious effort to try to figure out what it's like inside a woman's head. I think, as a lit major who's therefore read enough men to feel like I can state this with some confidence, it's actually pretty similar to being in a man's head. There's a reason a lot of us women on reddit get accidentally called "bro" every so often; it's because generally our thoughts and feelings are not very different. I honestly would guess that if someone took a transcript of a day's worth of my thoughts, they wouldn't be 100% sure of my gender.

Some men, when they write women, just overthink the whole thing. A character's other personality traits are going to come through a lot stronger than their gender in most cases. A Type A dude and a Type A lady have a lot more in common with each other than that lady has with me.

>as a lit major

stopped reading right there

They never fail to emphasize the importance of beauty no matter what.

“In spite of the silver hair framing her face, and the deep creases around her eyes, I couldn't help but be bewitched by her beauty.” Or some corny shit like that.

These characters could literally be fighting for their lives during the dust bowl and male authors often just can't resist emphasizing how gorgeous she is because obviously she has to be in order to make the book interesting /s

This is the one that always gets me. It is actually, counterintuitively, why I have started to like cultivation fantasy stuff so much. 75% of them are written by total incels, so you have to filter all that out, but the stuff that remains is based on the Chinese fantasy ideal, which makes men SUPER pretty. ( Here is an example of what I am talking about. No idea who the character is, this is just how all the men are described.)

So instead of just a constant barrage of random hot women, you also get a constant barrage of random hot men. When everyone is crazy gorgeous it stops being the focus, so in the good ones it is usually only mentioned as part of their "advancement" away from mortality.

The bad ones are all harem psycopath protagonists though, so avoid that.

uggos seething

My pet peeve is when a woman's death is used as a power to move the plot forward. It's such a popular trope that we barely register that!

I did a term paper on this! Like a decade ago—but I still remember that this trope is called Women in Refrigerators Syndrome. It's exactly as fricked up as it sounds.