Mastodawn

#PennedPossibilities 964 — MC POV: What area of your life do you tend to enjoy in excess instead of moderation?

If I asked this to my MC, a day angel woman named Bolt, she would emphatically answer, "Men."

Had I written instead, "If I asked this to my MC, a day angel man named Blue, he would emphatically answer, 'Women,'"what would you have thought instead?

Be honest.

Reply if it's interesting.

I write gender fiction precisely to elicit these types of revelations about gender roles and how our society treats each gender differently and unfairly, as well as to tweak the reader's nose as to their own prejudices and preferences.

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D. G. Marshall 3d ago

@sfwrtr

Some years ago, I was with a woman friend of mine when a guy I vaguely knew decided he had to tell me about all the women he'd slept with.

I saw my friend was getting a little upset.

I turned to the guy, and said, "Wow, you really are a slut!"

He spluttered incoherently for about thirty seconds. He'd obviously expected to be called a stud, in tones of admiration and wonder.

My friend clapped and cheered.

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RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist

@davidtheeviloverlord

[A gender role reversal left a man] splutter[ing] incoherently for about thirty seconds.

[Uh, oh. Looks like I'm going TL;DR. —RS]

Excellent anecdote. When people act out gender roles, especially reinforced by prior peer pressure, they can make an ass out of themselves. Makes for great storytelling! We are part of a rigidly gendered culture and we rarely get to glimpse it from the outside. I try to provide glimpses like you did in my stories. Juxtaposition is the essence of gender fiction.

I see gender roles in our culture as existing to maintain a status quo of power tilted toward men, and not benevolently so. Like female gender roles, male gender roles define "acceptable" behavior for men, which arguably many times men don't wish to perform, but do so because they've been indoctrinated (taught by rote without evidence) that it is the right way to behave, or behaving so is simply the easier path to follow. Drifting downstream is easier, even if the better port recedes behind in the mist.

Don't get me wrong. Seeking power over others is a very human trait. People in power often don't starve, their children tend to survive to adulthood, and others get things done for them because power is attractive. Gender roles apportion that power. Regardless, gender roles oppress people and make tyrants of others. Conformance benefits those in power not the individual.

Shame is a tool of conformance that can be wielded by either sex. You witnessed that sword wielded, you struck it free from the man's hand, and sliced back. For a moment, who had power over whom changed. I wonder if he learned anything, but everyone's cultural context shifted… For at least 30 seconds.

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