Gender Ratios in Comics

[eagle1]

While your intentions are good, it is important to remember that not all dictionaries define it the same way you do, nor do science books, which tend to use gender and sex interchangeably. Educating people as to WHY there is a difference between the two words will get you farther than simply declaring a difference and expecting people to agree.

And the subtle difference between the two words should be important to any writer, but give them the insight, not the demand.

Eagle
(Who knows the difference)

[Caelestie]

Well in French there is a distinction between the two. In most English dictionaries it is mostly masculinity and femininity first.
"Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to, and differentiating between, masculinity and femininity. Depending on the context, these characteristics may include biological sex (i.e. the state of being male, female or intersex), sex-based social structures (including gender roles and other social roles), or gender identity." {1}
I don't think doctors are really interested in your gender and are more into knowing which sex you are. Male and female are sex. Man and woman can be gender and sex from what I understand.
Is this enough of an explanation? Though I agree with you an explanation is better than a demand.

[Bii0]

Lol um... you didn't actually tell me that before, also I'm just answering the OP as is, the title says gender, and that's what I'll go by. No need to get your panties in a bind, bra. I wasn't setting out to offend you.

Gender has been used for medical terminology, I've actually seen it used more than the term "sex" during the medical term and other classes I have taken. "Male" and "female" are genders, and sex, I don't know why that bothers you so much. If you want to pick fights, please leave me out of it.

[Caelestie]

I am a woman first and foremost. I am not a bra or bro and please could you not say:

No need to get your panties in a bind

It isn't an amusing comment and somebody already told me to explain myself instead of making a demand. Which I did. Please don't try to mock me when I did not do any personal attacks on you.

Well I have seen it miss used a lot to. Though I think that might be American mostly doing that. Since sex have some odd implications for americans. In france and Canada we rarely use gender to mean sex. Male and female are not genders. Gender is a sex role in most cases. It isn't obligatory to exist with it.

If you want to pick fights, please leave me out of it.

Then why reply then. It makes no sense for you to reply to this is you don't want to talk about it. I may sounded harsh in my statement. So I excuse myself.
Next time do not reply to this if you don't want a "fight".

[Bii0]

Well so much for not fucking up on another site.

Hey, I'm sorry. I call everyone a bra. It doesn't even have a gender connotation to me anymore. I'm not trying to be amusing, you just seemed upset and I was trying to be more laid back. Different cultures use words differently, it doesn't mean anyone is more wrong than the other, for me in my culture gender means sex, and I apologize if I came off as saying you were wrong but it doesn't mean I'm wrong either.
I just replied because I didn't understand random negativity being directed at a lame comment that wasn't meant to be extremely serious, and it's a habit, if people directly communicate with me half the time I'll respond.

This sort of thing is just going to keep happening, it always does once I say something stupid, so I sincerely apologize. I'm a piece of garbage, I'll just delete this account before I cause any more problems.

[Caelestie]

Oh well to me it has a rather heavy male connotation. That is true. I should be more lenient on the definition! It just that find it odd after a while. Hmmmm I think I spend to much time in tumblr and I tend to be very negative toward people on how they use the word gender. I did sound harsh in my comment! I do apologize!

It is ok now you don't need to worry anymore! We both had a misunderstand of each other! It happened with me and eagle1 and now we are chill with each other! You are not piece of garbage. Please do not call yourself that. You are a decent human being. We had disagreement that is all! you don't need to delete your account! It is ok now!

[apocryphagraphics]

The misunderstanding may indeed be cultural. In American English gender can mean biologically male or female as well as the sexual and identity roles.

[Caelestie]

ah that could be. Especially in French since it is to say gender. It sounds odd.

[windikite]

@Caelestie It would be contrived because they just said they couldn't fit more characters yet. Did you not read that? Of course it applies to other things, If you actually read what I said you would know I never said or implied that it's only contrived when you try to add female characters.

You really need to chill out and stop trying to nail shit on people when they are trying to communicate and may or may not use the correct words. And yes, it can be forced even when you have that "perfect ratio", because you are deliberately trying to go for that ratio. You can still have strong female characters, strong black characters and strong whatever else characters without making it forced. Just do not have them just to be politically correct, or add in those characters when they don't makes sense to appear.

I could be white, make a bunch of black characters and that would be forced, should they not be ethnically possible in my story.
I could be black, make a bunch of black characters and that would STILL be forced, should they not be ethnically possible in my story.
Same thing goes for females or males, with any context if you try and add more than what you can reasonably add there or come up with, and no one should feel bad about only writing about what they know and are comfortable with.

@JigokuNeko I may not know much about specific research, but I do agree that girls get shafted. However, I don't agree that it gets problematic at all with the example you said. In that example, an all male cast with little female interaction or representation could be for either boys or girls. The only reason they might be known is because they are their girlfriend or mother, and it would make sense to include them because of specific story elements. Flip this around for girls after. In Sailor Moon, the only guys are for romance or fighting exclusively. Yes the cast ratio is contrived, but if you're going to appeal to a bunch of girls it's a valid way to do that and show them strong female leads. Fleshing them out may not even make sense, if the screen time should be spent on the main focus of the story. Thank you for being civilized though.

[Caelestie]

Again I never said to add character. They can modify one of their existing male characters. You are putting words into my mouth.

You really need to chill out and stop trying to nail shit on people when they are trying to communicate and may or may not use the correct words.

I apologized. Is that not enough and I have seen the errors of my ways yet you keep ramming it in.

Just do not have them just to be politically correct, or add in those characters when they don't makes sense to appear.

I addressed this in that same post you are replying to.

Though again the setting can make it hard for diversity and that is fine. But there always been exception to the rules.

So again your comment isn't very necessary since I do notice that sometimes diversity isn't always needed in a story.

[jmhenry]

So far I have one female character and three male characters that fit with the stories for the comic. And I can't seem to think of any new female characters because they would seem kinda "forced" into the stories

Then... Don't think of any? If you're current cast of characters are working out for your story right now, then there's no need to try and add more. The moment you try to force a character or an element into a story like that, not only will it feel forced to you, your readers will pick up on it too.

If you focus less on making enough X-Gender/Y-Gender characters and focus more on making enough good characters, no one will care what gender they are.

[stephanielopez]

ahahaha I have way more guys than girls.My ratio is off the charts. It wasn't my intention really, but I always end up making more guys. Just try to focus on making characters, regardless if it is male or female Feel comfortable with the characters you create. You got this don't worry.
In the first arc of my story I have about 25 males and 7 females. My main character is a girl.

[starlightcityentert]

I think that this may be a case of thinking it over too much. Ratios shouldn't matter IMO the only thing that matters? The characters. Who are they? What purpose do they serve? What's their backstory? What are their ambitions/what drives them?

Gender means something but at the same time...who cares. Gender shouldn't be the sole defining aspect of a character...so keeping count of how many men and how many women is irrelevant. In real life, you may have a group of friends and there may be 1 or 2 males that are with 3 females or 1 or 2 females with 3-4 males. If your story path leads you towards a cast where is 60/40 or 70/30....so what? Its your story, its what your beautiful mind and imagination has given birth to...embrace it.

For the record, I'm a male, but honestly my female characters are my favorite ones to write for in my series. They challenge me to look at the world that I've created through a different pair of eyes. Males are easy to write for me because of the experience, whereas females I have to rely on inspiration from females in my own life, either it be mother, sister, friend, lover, cousin, aunt, etc.

god i love writing.

[KSlinger]

I don't think it matters. Tell the story you want to tell and don't worry about your ratios. I'm far more comfortable writing men than women, and for a fair part of West it will seem like they are all the story is about, but my women come later and when they do it's at a stage where we can see how their actions and outlooks influence characters we already know. These women might be rare, but they are the most important additions by far. I'm not going to force them in prematurely to appease anyone, and neither should you. Enjoy yourself and do what you like!

[Aspie_Gamer]

I wouldn't worry too much about whos male and whos female. Right now, I've got three male main characters and two main female characters with a third as a supporting cast member.

[blu3random]

Hey, being kind of a distinguished expert in the field of gender ratios - the ideal male to female ratio in any situation is: one male, surrounded by at least four or more absurdly attractive females, all of whom are madly in love with him, but are to shy to be upfront with him. It is the golden rule, use wisely.

[Caelestie]

Ah I see someone likes the harem situation a lot! You also make the guy super boring so you don't understand why the girls like him! that is the typical scenario after all!

[blu3random]

yes, and if you really wanna troll, in the end, after all the build up, the guy does not end up with any of them : S

[Caelestie]

Or all the girls fight gladiator style and kill each other and the guy is left alone. then a new set of girls become interested in him and it all starts over again! that would be interesting if they go that route!

[TheLemmaLlama]

Just because the real world ratio is around 50-50 doesn't mean that any given group of people are more likely to have a gender ratio of 50-50. People's social groups aren't randomly determined by throwing a dice (and even if they are, most of those groups aren't gonna be completely even, though even groups would be more common than groups heavily slanted either way).

People gravitate towards some instead of others because of other factors and gender happens to be one of them. I find it pretty contrived for a group, especially a small one, to have a perfectly even ratio.

Then again as people here are saying, if the character's gender isn't an integral part of their character or the plot, it shouldn't really matter if you switch it