Character Gender

Many people say, "Character gender makes no difference in stories." I usually laugh when I hear this. It makes me think, "So, if we replace that horny hero with a heroine, she will still try to impress that young lady?" It is generally surprising how character gender has an impact on how original our stories can get, especially the main protagonist.

Male:
Common roles given to male characters follows:

• Main character
• Main villain
• Minor characters
• "Love hunters"
• Planned soon-to-be-dead character

Common traits follows:

• "Badass"
• Big and muscular
• Virtually indestructible
• Handsome and masculine
• Full of scars
• Barely serious
• Many more...

If it isn't obvious to you now, males dominate basically any stories. They are capable of taking up virtually any role and can have varying traits. Not to mention the fact that most main protagonists these days are men. Still, female characters must not be overlooked.

Female:
Common roles given to female characters follows:

• Secondary character
• Main love interest
• The final survivor
• "Love hunters"
• Eye-candy

Common traits follows:

• Generally slim
• Improperly armored
• Beautiful and feminine OR very masculine
• Always serious or highly emotional
• Delicate-looking
• Dumb blonde

Unlike males, females are rarely given very serious roles and are usually treated as eye-candy. Even with the increase in female involvement in stories, they are still a minority. Those who do play main protagonist roles are so similar to men that they are rather hard to call a woman.

Personally, I think female characters brings out the most amount of potential for original storylines, since they are rarely used and often used the same way over and over again. Male characters are so overused, it is very rare to see one with originality, especially the main protagonist.

Female protagonists I recommend would be one who can look after herself, combat or no, but still retains her feminine side, instead of becoming so similar to a man. Male protagonists I recommend would be one who possess at least a few obvious weakness (that actually makes sense) and are at least emotional. Stoic protagonists are so heavily overused.

If you want good examples of stories with good female characters, look at the following games:

• Portal and Portal 2 (Chell and GLaDOS)
• Final Fantasy XIII (Lightning)

I can't point out good examples of male characters, however, since most of them are so similar to one another.