Why straight men don't write romance aimed at straight women?

[CommanderMarty]

For those who don't know who Tezuka is. (He created Astro Boy)

[MrOwl]

people will typically trust a woman to understand romance more than a man.

I was suspicious about that, maybe that's because of the "male gaze" ?

[MrOwl]

female shounen authors

I feel like women are better at writing battle shounen, I'm a huge fan of FMA Brotherhood, Katekyou Hitman Reborn, Inuyasha(?) and Magi.

[MrOwl]

For those who don't know who Tezuka is

God of Manga, and a huge influence in anime.

[NickRowler]

It's not like it never happens, Nicholas Sparks has a large female following.

I think the draw back is some times you end up like the Tall Girl which was written by a short man and the whole movie seems to be insulting a girl for being tall and judging her for picking the tall boy over the "nice guy" short boy. And sometimes you are like "Dude, are you upset about something that happened to you?"

There are also a bunch of chick flicks that are written by men.

[derekh95]

I guess it depends. I would like to try my hand at it honestly, but I don't know where to start. I.e. should it be a teen love story? Workplace love story? Yuri? Yaoi? Straight? Love triangle? Slice of Life? Psychological? Etc.

I want to start one, but I don't really know the demographics all that well of what people like. I'm also busy with my current story right now, but I will look into it

[sxxaint]

I think a large part of the expectation revolves around women trusting women to write female characters better and to convey a woman as like ... a person (because there are some truly horrible examples of men writing women), so as long as your female character in the romance isn't a walking pair of tits, you're on the right track

This, of course, does not apply to yaoi, and I think if you're even thinking of aiming your story toward a female audience, this shouldn't be a problem for you

[YuJiaKweh]

For bl, the same applies though doesn't it? The character's personality shouldn't be their six packs and differently colored hair. cough cough looking at some of you

[sxxaint]

that's a very valid point actually. i think i tend to steer enough away from that kinda BL stuff so i don't really notice it so much, seeing as i mostly class it under bad writing with two dimensional characters. So yeah, come on people write romance with actual people, not impossibly attractive caricatures.

(I did mean to address it from the POV of a man writing a romance which includes a woman, however.)

[But_a_Jape]

It encompasses a lot more cultural understandings of male and female qualities than just "male gaze." Stereotypically, people view emotions and romance as "feminine" things, thus, one would assume a woman can navigate these topics more deftly than a man. Same way things like action and technology are stereotypical "masculine" things, so people would assume a man would have better understanding of these topics.

This is especially the case if this is a female audience looking for something appealing to women - you would assume another woman understands your experiences and tastes better than a man does.

[MrOwl]

This is especially the case if this is a female audience looking for something appealing to women - you would assume another woman understands your experiences and tastes better than a man does.

Yeah, that's why I'd limit myself to "replicate" what I see or read in stuff aimed at women, you can't go wrong that way lol, thanks for your input.

[Inspector_Spinda]

i think they might have to? I mean the majority of romance readers are women? but i mean you dont have to aim at pleasing anyone specifically. if someone likes romance, it just has to be good? im not even sure what "aimed at women" means in this context. unless it has to do with who is being sexualized. in that case it is simple. if you are a straight man, it's probably hard for you to sexualize men in a way women would find erotic and probably visa versa.

[MrOwl]

if you are a straight man, it's probably hard for you to sexualize men in a way women would find erotic and probably visa versa.

Nah, just copy what women do in their stories, easy peasy lol.

[Berserker]

But then there is stuff like "Handbook for Mortals" which was a wildly panned self-insert character by the author.

[Inspector_Spinda]

well if you find it easy then there shouldn't be a problem with you doing a romance.

[MrOwl]

I do, because I consume a lot of stuff aimed at women, there's patterns everywhere, thanks. xD

[MrOwl]

Nicholas Sparks

"I don't write romance novels." - Nicholas Sparks

[MrOwl]

For bl, the same applies though doesn't it? The character's personality shouldn't be their six packs and differently colored hair

Hmm, say that to fujoshis. xD

[MrOwl]

I think a large part of the expectation revolves around women trusting women to write female characters better and to convey a woman as like ... a person (because there are some truly horrible examples of men writing women)

I'm aware of that, male gaze, and nuanced stuff get in the way, but you could replicate how real women write fictional women, right? or immerse in stuff aimed at women like I did, when you watch tons of movies, shoujo animes, play otome games, read shoujo manga, romance novels, etc, stuff gets easy.

[MrOwl]

I want to start one, but I don't really know the demographics all that well of what people like

Immerse in stuff aimed at women, and maybe read about feminism if you want, this stuff helped me a lot.