I have just finished reading Cranford and one of the things that interested me the most is the way that the female author (Gaskell) writes men. The men of Cranford are, in many ways, feminine. Captain Brown lives a rather domestic life, looking after his daughters, and Peter goes so far as to dress as a woman. This made me think back to our class discussions and blog discussions regarding Die Vernon in Rob Roy. Die Vernon is a masculine female written by a male (Scott). By writing gender this way, are the authors commenting on what the ideal member of the opposite sex would be like, or are they falling back on the ideals that they know and are simply placing these ideals on members of the opposite sex out of lack of understanding? Is this a trait of gender specific literature (e.g. Chick Lit and Lad Lit)? Is the 'Colin Firth' character of Chick Lit a true example of masculinity or is he a female ideal of what a man should be? I tend to think the latter is true. In the same way, I expect many of the females portrayed in Lad Lit will similarly be some kind of a male ideal of what a female should be.
I wanted to put this out there before we approach Hornby's How to Be Good, since all I know going into the novel (having not even read the back cover yet) is that it is Chick Lit written by a man. I don't know what to expect of the major female character(s). I am interested to see how a man writes a woman in Chick Lit, and how this differs from how a man writes a woman in Lad Lit.
