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To get my bias clear: what I'm about to say is based mainly on anecdotal experience with fellow female writers both in fandom and without.
Off the top of my head, I can think of no one I know who professes to write men and women with equal ease. Some have an easier time with women because they are women, so it's easier to slip into that headspace, some have an easier time writing men precisely because they aren't men, and feel like they have a freedom that they don't when writing women (and I'm sure there are numerous other reasons for why writing one gender or the other is easier or harder).
That said.
I don't think there is anything inherently easier or harder about writing a man versus a woman, but I do think exclusively writing one or the other, at all times, is a sign of weakness in a writer. (You can certainly choose that all your stories have a protagonist of one gender or the other but I consider knowing how to write both* in the same category as knowing how to write both present and past tense.)
The most common reasons for NOT writing the opposite gender are some of the same ones used for not writing characters of different ethnicities than oneself and hold about as much water. (tl;dr: PEOPLE. MORE SIMILAR THAN THEY ARE DIFFERENT.)
Where it gets tricky is with historical fiction. We have sexism in our current culture and in a lot of times in the past, we had a fuckton more. Depending on how close an author is hewing to historical fact, most male characters would have a lot of sexist ideas about women and a lot of women were severally limited in what they could believably be doing and the amount of agency they had.
The modern sensibilities/historical accuracy balancing act strikes me as way harder than just writing from a man's pov.
But not impossible.
Just look at historical precedent: there have been badass ladies (and I'm going to assume, men who respected them - or am I being too optimistic?) throughout recorded history.
*I know that there are more than two options for gender but in the interests of not tripping over my words, I'm going to pretend for this post.
Off the top of my head, I can think of no one I know who professes to write men and women with equal ease. Some have an easier time with women because they are women, so it's easier to slip into that headspace, some have an easier time writing men precisely because they aren't men, and feel like they have a freedom that they don't when writing women (and I'm sure there are numerous other reasons for why writing one gender or the other is easier or harder).
That said.
I don't think there is anything inherently easier or harder about writing a man versus a woman, but I do think exclusively writing one or the other, at all times, is a sign of weakness in a writer. (You can certainly choose that all your stories have a protagonist of one gender or the other but I consider knowing how to write both* in the same category as knowing how to write both present and past tense.)
The most common reasons for NOT writing the opposite gender are some of the same ones used for not writing characters of different ethnicities than oneself and hold about as much water. (tl;dr: PEOPLE. MORE SIMILAR THAN THEY ARE DIFFERENT.)
Where it gets tricky is with historical fiction. We have sexism in our current culture and in a lot of times in the past, we had a fuckton more. Depending on how close an author is hewing to historical fact, most male characters would have a lot of sexist ideas about women and a lot of women were severally limited in what they could believably be doing and the amount of agency they had.
The modern sensibilities/historical accuracy balancing act strikes me as way harder than just writing from a man's pov.
But not impossible.
Just look at historical precedent: there have been badass ladies (and I'm going to assume, men who respected them - or am I being too optimistic?) throughout recorded history.
*I know that there are more than two options for gender but in the interests of not tripping over my words, I'm going to pretend for this post.