Beliyal said:
Sorry for dragging you back into the thread, but I think this is valuable advice for any character creation and roleplaying and writing. Just focus on making a character their own person, instead of making a character "convincing [insert gender]." There's no one golden standard for being a convincing representative of your gender.
Sort of depends.
I used to joke about the fact that CSI had technical and science advisors, then I found out that on shows like that, they were frequently overruled because people wouldn't think reality was realistic enough. In fact, CSI and similar shows have impacted court proceedings because they end up reaffirming unrealistic notions about science. This is how we end up in situations where time travel or fire-breathing dragons are okay, but a female protagonist somehow trips peoples' bullshit meter. A woman who can kick ass in a fight--something that actually happens at a rate higher than 0%--is still incredible in a world where giant lizards can fly and produce usually unlimited supplies of fire somehow. Magic, in a sense, is more real than the real world.
My favourite pizza joint is one that serves "authentic Greek food." I've had Greek food. This is more marketing than anything else. But a good number of people believe it's authentic because there isn't much in the way of other Greek cuisine around here. And on some level, that's fine by me. I'm not really into authentic Greek food, while the Americanised versions do appeal to me (hence me frequenting the place). But the thing is, this is an actual Greek family (like, immigrants) who have very likely had to adapt their food to the American standards of authenticity. This is apparently super common with Chinese food, and is probably why the truly authentic Asian restaurants in my area don't do anywhere near the business of the ones that essentially make Chef Boyardee.
I think this is especially fitting for this thread, because we're talking about a predominantly white, American audience judging the authenticity of another culture's food.
Popular culture is sort of self-reinforcing. There is a fuss right now about a black cowboy in the new version of the Magnificent Seven because it's not historically accurate, because most people get their history from TV. In fact, a good chunk of "cowboys" weren't white. They were either black or of Hispanic/Latinx descent.
But, I mean, that's why I say it depends. If you want to make a black cowboy, it had better be a comedy with people going "a-WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?" and "up yours, [N-word]!" or people will balk. Women in media are fantasy creatures. You can point to how women act in the real world, but in most people's minds, "Women" reads like an entry in a D&D Monster Manual:
Always Chaotic Evil. Travel to bathrooms in packs of 2d4+1. Easily distracted by shoes and Sephora.
I suspect if you're a guy trying to convince other guys, that this is the way to "properly" play a woman, because otherwise, it breaks suspension of disbelief. Similarly, if you want to sell a woman to a mass of dudes, well...look no further than this thread as to why you might want to go that route.
I mean, I don't give a crap about that, but I'm pretty sure my writing is too terrible to publish anyway. >.>