Is Literature Gender Gratifying?

[cacian]

in other words does literature make one feel good about their gender?
or is it more frequently diminutive then ever
it stigmatises the male gender and berates the female one?
Madame de Bovary
Don Quichote
comes to mind.
and there seem to be no middle ground.
the inbetweeners male and female is not spoken for.

please discuss

[Pierre Menard]

I can't say I've ever read anything that has made me feel good or bad about my gender. Especially considering there is no one book that could ever fully encapsulate human experiences, views, ideas, etc…let alone specified aspects of humanity.


It's also totally irrelevant to the quality of the art, which is all I'm interested in when I engage in art.

[cacian]

I can't say I've ever read anything that has made me feel good or bad about my gender. Especially considering there is no one book that could ever fully encapsulate human experiences, views, ideas, etc…let alone specified aspects of humanity.


It's also totally irrelevant to the quality of the art, which is all I'm interested in when I engage in art.

to write is to be human.
i am surprised you have never felt bloom/good when reading about your gender.
maybe literature is missing out,
art is a feel good factor by humans for humans.

[Mohammad Ahmad]

Simply, where I find gender in the earth I find the pleasure, on the other hand, I don't allow my emotion to be jailed
The opened space should gather my soul attractively, so that thoughts never can be harmful within gender or without gender.
It looks on my eyes equally

[YesNo]

Whether it is gender or something else, I would read literature from the perspective of what I think is true. If literature contradicts that then it would have to convince me that I'm wrong or at least make me doubt my position. I expect literature to entertain.

[Vota]

I typed a very length response to this question, but realized this could easily turn into a circle jerk session when you start delving into the myriad associations you can dig up. So I'll just sit out on this one.

[cacian]

I typed a very length response to this question, but realized this could easily turn into a circle jerk session when you start delving into the myriad associations you can dig up. So I'll just sit out on this one.

Vota nothing wrong with a dig as long as it is out that is all that matters.

[cacian]

Whether it is gender or something else, I would read literature from the perspective of what I think is true. If literature contradicts that then it would have to convince me that I'm wrong or at least make me doubt my position. I expect literature to entertain.

with entertainment comes certainty.
how do you mean by contradict?

[foundleigh]

In the past, most of the great roles were there for the gentleman, the women, unfortunately, were merely secondary characters, almost objects if you will.

Both in literature and in film we see males dominate the action and crime genres. Anytime there is an intellectual it is almost always male.

Women are often; love interests, objects, mothers, characters with little power etc

This is because through-out history men have dominated women. A patriarchal society creates patriarchal authors, who in turn, create art of the same effect.

Fortunately progress over the past sixty years has been made. Now, it appears that women equal, or perhaps excel men, with regards to getting published. I do hope that this, in turn, will create more female characters in literature who are equal to men.

[ennison]

I've read the opening question a few times but I don't really get it. Maybe if one reads Hemingway one might feel inclined to swan off to kill bulls or make tight-lipped love. Maybe Jane can make the reader feel she is like her, astute and shrewd and witty and it's because she's a woman. I dunno. I think I'll present a deliberately dumb front here until I understand the drift of the question.