Writing a Female Character

In a courtroom drama I’m reading, a female district attorney is woken up in the middle of the night by a phone call about a suspect getting arrested. She dresses formally in a business suit and is “out the door within five minutes.” That’s how you know that the author is male because otherwise he’d know that a business suit goes with a bra and tights, and hair needs to be brushed, and at least some makeup needs to go on. Nobody is going anywhere in under 5 minutes.

This author makes his female district attorney an emotional wreck so that she’s more believable as a female character. It’s a frequent mistake where people exaggerate clichés about gender and disregard its practicalities.

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