Gendered pronouns

In my recent post about a story of someone going to a job interview, I chose to use female pronouns for both the applicant and the boss, even though I think the original story I heard used "he".

FWIW, I don't remember where I heard the story, but it was presented as a parable, not a factual account, and the extent of the checking I did was to look on snopes, who didn't cite an original incident, so I assumed it was basically generic. At least one friend reckoned they DID have a citation for the original incident, in which case I should have used whichever gender was appropriate. But I was treating it as a generic "story about something that might have happened".

In fact, I don't know for sure the version I heard used "he". It might have used "they", or even named a specific person as the interviewer or the candidate. And I unfortunately probably wouldn't have remembered the difference.

But I make an effort to make generic stories using female characters if I can, because if I don't I end up using "he" all the time.

I hesitated a bit this time, because I wasn't sure if I'd accidentally send some _other_ message (would people think women less likely to be "one of the boys" at a job interview? more likely to be picky about some obscure point of etiquette?). But I always hesitate in case the connotations are wrong (eg. using a non-white-male as a villain or incompetent in a story), but decided that if I didn't do it every time I wasn't sure, I'd just be promoting "he" as the default, which is what I wanted to avoid.

And fortunately, the story seemed to come across exactly the same.

Using mixed or neutral gender pronouns is a small improvement, and something I feel bad that I decided to do, rather than something I always did automatically. But I know I don't notice when other people make small stylistic choices like that, so for once I thought I'd point it out.

Mazerunner

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Maze_Runner

This is one of the books I picked up on a whim because I liked the premise. I like books about mazes. And gods. And people like Ender Wiggin. And philosophy. And books that are thought provoking but not needlessly obscure, and have nice characters, and are funny in the characters or the descriptions, but don't have the literary equivalent of canned laughter. Make me a book with all of that and I'll be happy :)

This book had mazes. The protagonists wake up in a maze with no memory of how they got there, in a society of other children who had likewise woken up with no memory, and built a life around trying to find a way out.

And it was a reasonably good example of young adult dystopia, so I feel bad for bashing it just because it didn't live up to the things I wished it tried to do, but didn't. But I was horribly unsatisfied that the book wasn't really about escaping from the maze.

( Some spoilers )

The People I've Slept With

The People I've Slept With is a film about a woman who discovers she's pregnant, and tries to find out which of the men she's slept with is the father.

It sounds like the most awful film I could imagine. I can practically hear the cliche-machine gearing up for 90 minutes of "oh look, a woman has a sex drive, ha ha" and the heavy-handed-message machine churning out great dollops of "premarital sex is BAD, mmmmkay".

But it's not like that at all. Compared to most sex comedies, it's a breath of fresh air:

* The main character is a woman who sleeps with people if she feels like it, and this isn't portrayed as a great act of rebellion, or of being a victim, just as someone living a slightly wanton lifestyle, just as if it had been a male character
* There's a gay best friend, who's quite camp, but is totally, totally awesome
* And has his own romantic arc, and his own triumphs and disasters, and his relationship with the main character is important, not just an exposition device
* The main character is of East Asian ethnicity. Many other characters are Asian or Latino. It's not a big character moment about diversity, just that the main character happens to live in a social group where everyone isn't always white by default.
* The main character sleeps mostly with men, but also with several women, and this isn't a big revelation, it's just who she is.
* The focus is on what the main character wants to do with her life, not "will she get together with the obvious love interest"
* All the minor characters (especially her partners) are somewhat sympathetic even when they're annoying, and memorably different. They're people you could imagine actually sleeping with, rather than just "generic handsome guy #4"

So, if you feel starved for any of that, and don't mind discussions of promiscuity, pregnancy, and possible abortion, it's a good film to see.

On the other hand, there are, as always, several things which are potentially annoying (which didn't bother me much, but may be upsetting for some people).

However, despite all of the very good things, I felt it was quite good, but not really exciting. I don't know if would be better or worse if you felt more similar to the protagonist. I suspect it depends if you're starved for ANY portrayal of, well, any one of the large number of things above, in which case it's awesome, or if you're craving something more specific, in which case it may not have it.