Approaches to Gender

When an author begins constructing a novel, there is a plethora of various factors that a writer must take into account. Not only is an author concerned with the surface story—the plot lines, the characters, the actions, and the dialogue—but they’re concerned with the approach they take while writing their story. The approach refers to how the author’s audience reads the words the author deliberately chooses to write. Often times, any given approach an author decides to use is a way for the author themselves to take a stance about a specific issue taking place within the world around them. Writers use their pieces of literature as a way to exhibit their own personal beliefs. One popular approach writers take is the approach of gender. Authors will express their opinions about different gender issues through character roles, dialogue, and word choice. Having an approach, such as gender, forces the audience to read the text a specific way, and often times, the statement the author makes can cause the reader to question his/her own beliefs, and his/her society.

Gender is a very important approach for authors to use because gender issues are never-ending. The problems of gender—such as female expectations or male vs. female dominance—are constant, and it’s quite possible that there will never be a solution to solve the gender war. Because gender arguments are constant, authors choose to write about it in their pieces of literature often. The stances they take on different gender issues is important when readers interpret it correctly. Without readers interpreting what the author is really trying to say, the author’s approach is meaningless. But when readers can really identify the author’s underlying message, it gives them an opportu...

... middle of paper ...

... an inferior, frightened, woman. Nothing more than someone who will always be defeated by the fist of man. Nothing more than a generous, motherly figure.

In many novels, gender has a huge role in the development of the ideas and actions of the overall story. Making statements about gender through literature is a way for an author to express his/her views in a way that other people can relate to. No matter what the view on gender is—males are dominant, women are more than housewives, or women are what they are made out to be—authors have an opportunity to say something, and possibly change something, about the issues they feel are important. By picking an approach, and weaving in clues of their personal beliefs and allowing readers to agree or disagree with them, writers can, ultimately, play a part in changing the way things work, and so can the writer’s audience.