: Re: What are the standard genre characteristics of contemporary women's fantasy I want to write a fantasy novel with a female protagonist, and I want to familiarize myself with reader expectations.

@Mendez196

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What the female reader expects to see is a good story without gender stereotypes or sexism.

Lauren's advice applies. Female readers are going to be very sensitive to sexist tropes and female stereotypes perpetuated by male-dominated religions, governments and other institutions, related to personal relationships, mathematical or scientific ability, physical weakness, their menstrual cycles, their roles in sex, or objectification; e.g. your female lead is the most desirable woman in the world!

Male authors sometimes give women power by having a man back her up; the queen is obeyed because the king says so, even if the king is elderly and weak as a kitten and could not fight his way out of a paper bag!

Avoid any fear of battle or injury greater than you'd give a male, and avoid tokenism (having ONE female in the central cast surrounded by men, with all other females in the story props or 'the normal females').

Like a male hero, a female hero should have flaws that cause her problems; a woman without any flaws that is better than men or women in everything is boring.

But flaws are NOT disabilities: Flaws must be something she can overcome mentally, like arrogance, not things like physical size or height. Both genders can have disabilities, but the female disabilities should not be relative to a man or involve female stereotypes, like a lack of courage, or hormonal fluctuations, or a desire to be nurturing or to be a parent.

And finally, don't try the excuse of a lesbian female hero thinking that this lets you write her as you would a male hero. It doesn't. Presume the one and only difference for a lesbian is that she prefers women for sex. Do not presume that single commonality with heterosexual men makes her one of them.

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