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"Please excuse the armchair psychology in this. My professor insisted that I give my "analysis" of the responses. I'm really just BSing most of it. Sorry if I took anyone's comments out of context."
-Skyrocket
Fanfiction could be defined as a hobby where someone takes characters from another medium, like comic books or TV shows, and writes their own stories about them. Increasingly, fan fiction (fanfic for short) is becoming a medium where many women are choosing to express their creative side.
Since I joined the fanfic community a little over a year ago, I have become curious as to what women thought of fanfic. So I sent a short questionnaire to several fanfic mailing lists asking women about what drew them to fanfic, their views on it, and what influence being a woman had on their writings. To be honest, I was not sure what I was expecting. Stuff about expressing emotions and using those emotions in stories, but nothing more concrete. The responses I got, all from women, had a few surprises.
The first question I asked was "What drew you to fanfic?" Sascha Morgan responded by saying, "I realized that I wasn't crazy, and I wasn't the only one who made up stories in her head about her 'heroes' on screen and from comics. Finding out that other people did the same and actually wrote down stories, well, it just made me happy for lack of a better word. (Morgan)" My experience was similar. I was amazed to find other people who liked these characters as much as I did. Moreover, they were writing stories about them! It really opened a whole new world to me. VxRattlerX said, "I've just always loved writing. It's my craft, my forte. I use it to paint pictures with words instead of a brush. (VxRattlerX)" That's really a great analogy. When I'm writing I really do feel like I'm painting a picture.
Anna said, "Fan fiction also has a great freedom in it that I enjoy. Absolutely ANYTHING can happen, from character death to major emotional turmoil for the characters I've come to enjoy. (Anna)" Fanfic truly is a free medium. Authors are free to kill anyone they want, and alter circumstances to their taste. It's that sort of freedom that lets the Millennium Falcon soar space alongside the Enterprise, for Mulder and Scully to visit Sunnydale, or for Gen13 to team-up with the Sailor Scouts.
I think this freedom is very appealing to women because it lets them express a degree of control they may not feel in their real lives. While we do live in a liberated society, many women still deal with being cast in the cultural role of mother and maintainer of the household. That, coupled with other gender issues in our society, such as the "glass ceiling", may be making some women feel a loss of control. When you're writing a story you're Lord God of that universe and what happens to the people in it. Perhaps by writing, women are regaining some of the control they feel is missing from their real lives.
The next question was "How does being a woman influence the way you write?" On this, I was surprised to see most people respond that it didn't. "I don't consider being female to change the way I do anything at all from males," said Riv Sesana (Sesana). Lonni Holland echoed that by saying, "Hopefully it doesn't. I hope my work is just good writing, not good 'female' writing. (Holland)" I think that's an understandable statement. After all, I wouldn't want my work to be thought of as good "male" writing. I really think this is the same feeling held by Mary Shelly, Nellie Bly, Emily Dickinson, Kate Chopan, and other well know female writers though out history. People simply want to be judged by the quality of their work, not by things like gender, background, et However, I think Indigo summed it up best with, "As far as I know, it doesn't I don't use my genitalia to write. (Indigo)"
There is no arguing the fact that men and women are different. We're physically and biologically designed to see the world differently. So I think it's safe to say that some of these differences are bound to seep into the way we write. How much of an influence is rather difficult to say.
While most women said being female was not a factor in how they wrote, there were some who felt it was an influence. Comic book fanfic writer Sigil noted, "I suppose you could say that I'm writing about the culture of maleness (and the superhero let's-go-settle-this-in-a-fight is about as male as you can get!) from a female perspective. (Sigil)" Zara Lyon said, "I think more about the emotional reactions characters have, rather than writing more action-based stories. (Lyon)"
On this part, I think that the women who felt gender was an influence in their writing thought that they used their emotions and perspective in ways that men didn't. A prime example would be Alicia Mckenzie, well known for her stories about the superhero, Cable. A mutant cyborg soldier from the future, Cable is just about as much of a "guy" character as you can get. In the comics he's all business and hides his emotions. But in her stories Alicia dives into Cable's mind and, in stories like "Water for the Dead" and "All the Saints in Heaven", gives us glimpses into his psyche that we rarely see in the comics.
On the flip side, male writer Dex is very well known for his work with the White Queen, a telepath of questionable morality. Stories like "Hey, Little Sister" and "To Mistress with Love" show us the depths of a character too often portrayed as nothing more than a manipulative ice queen.
My next question was "Have you noticed any major differences in the way men and women write?" The answers to this pretty much fell into two camps.
"It seems to me that female fanfic writers cover the entire writing range from 'horrible' to 'fantastic', male fanficcers are invariably either 'horrible' or 'fantastic' with few shades in between," noted Kelly Newcomb (Newcomb). Kender observed "Men tend to write about men and women don't really have that boundary. (Kender)" Sai Wang said, "Female writers often have women as the main character, and male writers have men. (Wang)"
"Feminists have analyzed literature by both men and women in an effort to understand literary representations of women as well as the writers and cultures that create them. Related to concerns about how gender affects the way men and women write about each other is and intrest in whether women use language differently from the way men do. (Meyer)" That brings up an interesting point. From my reading of fanfic, I'd have to say that men write mostly about men and women write mostly about women. I think it's this way simply because that's the gender perspective that people have and it's easier to write. In addition, I have to agree with Kelly's observation. While bad writing cuts across gender lines, for guys it's really gold or crap.
I wanted some insight as to what kind of characters women responded to, so I asked, "What types of characters do you identify with?" The responses seemed to be either "strong females" or what I can only call "other". Rossi said, "Strong independent women. The ones that don't need a man to be there all the time for them. (Rossi)" Rowan added, "Definitely young girls undergoing stressful situations. Being a young female in the 15-18 age group, I tend to identify with the same types of people. (Rowan)"
I think this is really only natural. Guys identify with men like Michael Jordan, Rambo, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Shakespeare, Batman and other men who have traits they see in themselves or admire. It really isn't that different for women.
In the "other" category I got responses like "Ordinary people thrown into extraordinary circumstances," from Green Willow (Green Willow). Hutch said, "Outsiders, loners, the folks who just don't quite fit in. As one who has been like that most of my life, I find the most interest in that type of character." Maria Cline commented, "I can identify with the loners in the group. (Cline)"
The reason people would empathize with "ordinary people thrown into extraordinary circumstances" is that we've all felt that way at some point. Sometimes fate conspires to yank the rug out from under us and we're left to scramble to regain our balance. It's not fun to go though, but it does make good entertainment.
The identification with "loners" and "outsiders" is even more understandable. Who hasn't felt excluded or shunned at some point? These characters give us comfort in the fact that we know we're not alone in our feelings.
My final question was "What types of stories do you find touch you as a woman?" The reaction to this was interesting in that many women said that they didn't like stories that tried to touch them as women. "Anything I read that seems to be trying to appeal to me as woman, rather than a person, is a story I generally can't stand," commented Alara Rogers (Rogers). "I don't want to be 'touched'. I want to be AFFECTED, powerfully," responded Kelly Newcomb (Newcomb). Sigil stated, "I don't go around reacting to things with different parts of my identity. I don't react to things 'as a woman', I react to things as a person (Sigil)."
Now that I've had some time to think about it, these responses make a lot of sense. No one likes it when they're being deliberately pandered to. When someone does that a lot of people tend to feel very insulted.
However, there were a few responses that did say certain things did touch them. "I like all the little day-to-day dramas the characters face; being accepted, relationships, children, etc," said Bad Kitty (Bad Kitty). Terri Hayes commented "Stories that allow characters to gain some insight into themselves, romance that is not mush but is handled well, and stories that allow strengths and weaknesses to show. (Hayes)" Rossi replied, "Stories where you can find out what a character is thinking and feeling, not what they're doing. (Rossi)"
The feeling I'm getting here is that women in general prefer the more introspective, emotional stories. Maybe this is just another example of the way men and women react differently to the world. For example, when a teenage girl is under stress she may write angst-filled poetry or stories. When teenage males are under stress, they tend to drink beer and commit minor acts of vandalism.
My overall impression from this is that women are drawn to fanfic because it gives them an outlet they may not be able to express in the general world. It gives them a chance express feelings they might have trouble dealing with around others in a way that makes them feel comfortable. Writing also taps into the urge within all people to create, to leave something behind. But most importantly I feel our gender experiences may give us a framework by which to write, but our minds are able to take us beyond that if we want to.
