The Novel Approach welcomes author Megan Linden today on her Serve & Protect blog tour. Enjoy Megan’s guest post, and then be sure to leave a comment right here for the chance to win an e-copy of the book.
Good luck!
It’s the Men’s World – But What About Women?
With two main characters identifying as male, M/M romance doesn’t leave a lot of room for women. Those love stories aren’t their love stories. They are not in the spotlight – that’s a given. But what does happen to women in m/m books is still important.
There are many critical voices that comment on treatment of women in media of all kinds: from “putting them in the fridge” (infamous trope of a woman being killed off, abused, or depowered for the sole purpose of affecting another character, usually male), to making them evil just for the sake of explaining or justifying another character’s actions towards them, and beyond. It’s important to question those things as readers or viewers. And it’s good for the creators to question themselves as well.
Questioning is creative. Questioning means not taking the easiest, most obvious route. It doesn’t mean that a female character can never die, get hurt, or be evil. Of course she can. But let’s think about it. Let’s consider how too many female characters are written without any real agenda, without a voice. We can find those kinds of characters in any media. But in a genre where the “most obvious” already got flipped on its head, where the love story was expanded and redefined from the mainstream definition, we know stuff about not taking the road most travelled. So why not question the status quo in other areas as well?
This is a topic very dear to me and it turned out to be especially important in writing my newest book, Serve & Protect. Some choices were easy – for example, Sam was always going to work for a female presidential candidate. But other times, it got trickier. Since Blake’s raising his daughter on his own, there are questions that come out: How did it happen? Who is her mom? Why is she not there? And that was the part when I had to really think about it and work around the obvious answers, if I didn’t want to kill her or make her a bad g… gal.
As a writer, I will do things wrong in the future. And I’m sure I will mess this part up, too, somehow. But I’m going to keep questioning it, just like I reflect on other parts of my stories, because I truly believe questioning makes for better writing.
What about you? What do you think about characterization of female characters, inside and outside of the m/m genre?
GIVEAWAY!: Be sure to leave a comment below by the end of Sunday, June 7th, 2015 to have a chance of winning an e-book copy of Serve & Protect. One lucky winner will be selected at random on Monday, June 8th.
Blurb: What happens when you fall in love in the heart of politics?
Sam Daniels’ life turns upside down when he meets an amazing guy and gets a job offer he can’t refuse almost at the same time. Working in politics and sustaining any kind of personal life is never easy, but when you’re running a campaign to elect the first woman to the office of the President of the United States, it may become nearly impossible.
Blake Morin, after spending years as a SEAL, lives a quiet life with his daughter and he’s fine with that. He can’t deny the attraction between him and Sam, but is he ready to enter the world he used to avoid?
Buy links: HERE
ABOUT MEGAN: Megan Linden is one of those people who dreamed of being a writer since they were a little kid and then didn’t do anything about it for years. Then as a teenager she was introduced to fandom and… well. She fell head first into it and never looked back. At some point she decided to try writing her own characters in her own stories. And that’s where she is today.
Her newest series, D.C. Files, is set in and around the political world of Washington. The first book, Serve & Protect, just came out and it’s available on various retailers.
Book sounds interesting. New to me author. Good luck with the book tour
Thanks for the post and the giveaway chance. I love finding new authors to read and this book sounds really good.
Congratulations on the new release! Looking forward to reading it!
I have this book in my wishlist, thanks for the chance!
The book sounds good, adding to my TBR list.
Sounds really good. Thank you for the chance! :)
Congratulations on the new release! I am looking forward to reading it!
Yeah, women in m/m can be tricky to write. Since they aren’t the main character, we usually get the mean mother, or the mother that’s totally accepting…usually don’t get anything in between. Plus the mean ex wife or the mean spurned girlfriend wannabe Of course there are always the quirky best friend/sidekick females. I don’t usually worry too much about it unless it’s too far over the top. :-)
Congratulations on the release! Ive read women of all sorts during the short time that I have been reading M/M Romance. It never fails though, they help to shape the ploty. Parents, especially, help to mold characters. But never underestimate the damage an ex can do I can’t wait to pick this one up to read. Thanks for a chance in the giveaway.
Interesting post. Fictional women in M/M romance can really be grating – screeching and hateful. However much people say that this is overdone, the problem is that people in real life really can be that way. I really like the characters, however, who are funny and generous and who add to the story positively rather than trying to keep the two main characters apart.
Congrats on your new book. Thank you for the giveaway chance!
I’ve never given much thought to the women in m/m stories since they aren’t the main focus. I do think it’s nice when there is one written in and she/they are depicted in a supporting matter. I also find that they do play a good part when acting as the villain too.
sounds interesting…please count me in
Honestly I don’t really think about the gender of the side characters that much. Some female characters irritate me or piss me off but so do some male supporting characters – that is what they are supposed to do. I have read quite a bit of m/m romance and I have really found stereotypes to to fairly evenly used and apply to both genders – sassy female friend, self absorbed twink, horrible parents, supportive parents and everything in between. I try to trust the author to write characters that further the plot line. If a screechy ex-partner (male of female) or an abusive parent is needed to advance the story then its totally acceptable. This book sounds very interesting and I can’t wait to see how the absent mom is dealt with. Thanks for the chance to win a copy.
New to me author. Already on my wishlist! Thanks for the chance!
Regarding characterization of female characters inside of the m/m genre,it’s paradox that the women are usually portrayed as either villains (over-the-top bitchy ex-wife) or they are only there for, as you said, “putting them in the fridge”,considering the fact that the majority of m/m books are written by a woman. I mean,women degrade women…which,honestly,pisses me off. That’s just not right…
But m/f genre is worse. Authors still write books where women are portrayed as week-minded human beings, whose apparently only purpose in life is finding alpha male (the more chauvinistic he is the better) and literally submitting to him and his every wish,because,you know, they don’t have mind of their own (or spine for that matter),or if they have it’s useless,and what’s worse those books still sell,women really read those…that fact right there sickens me.
Interesting post M/M books seem to go one way or the other with female characters they either are the really fun and very supportive friend/ Mother or they are completely the opposite they are the wronged wife/girlfriend or angry bigoted mother etc. I must admit lately the books I’ve read the female characters are becoming more even which I do prefer.
Well in most of the mm books women are either really bad or really good. But there is not much to them either way. I didn’t met any female character that I really liked in mm books.And it’s been long since I read mf book.