Can you appreciate a story without identifying yourself to the MC ?

NobleTalon

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As a queer woman, I'm happy reading pretty much anyone's perspective as long as I don't despise them. I don't need any self-insertion, and I find the most relatable parts in characters are their human (or human-like) emotions and reactions.

That said, I can't really read stories with straight men MCs.
I might just be unlucky, but every story of that sort I've picked up in the last few years had the MC act like some sort of sexual predator and/or was full of blood-chillingly awful descriptions of women...
Like, if you're going to sexualise every woman who passes the scene, could you please make sure your descriptions are sexy and not borderline body horror?
That's an interesting point of view that looks quite close to mine but from the exact opposite direction.

I have always been curious about what transexual people thought about this. It always seemed to me that gender-bender stuff would be the 'norm' for trans readers the same way straight or gay MCs would be the 'norm' for straight or gay readers, and reversely trans ppl would not feel comfortable following a straight MCs the same way I do not feel comfortable reading gender bender or gay stuff.

Your opinion confirmed it.

As for the sexual thingy, I don't know the kind of story you read but over-sexualizing men/women depend more on the author's fantasy rather than the sexuality of the MC. Especially when the society itself is already over-sexualizing women, the same way it is over-exploiting men. Unfortunately, there are prejudices everywhere and maybe the novels you did read were written by authors unaware of these clichés, or they simply didn't care.
 

Moonpearl

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That's an interesting point of view that looks quite close to mine but from the exact opposite direction.

I have always been curious about what transexual people thought about this. It always seemed to me that gender-bender stuff would be the 'norm' for trans readers the same way straight or gay MCs would be the 'norm' for straight or gay readers, and reversely trans ppl would not feel comfortable following a straight MCs the same way I do not feel comfortable reading gender bender or gay stuff.

Your opinion confirmed it.

As for the sexual thingy, I don't know the kind of story you read but over-sexualizing men/women depend more on the author's fantasy rather than the sexuality of the MC. Especially when the society itself is already over-sexualizing women, the same way it is over-exploiting men. Unfortunately, there are prejudices everywhere and maybe the novels you did read were written by authors unaware of these clichés, or they simply didn't care.
I'm not transgender, so my opinion can't be counted towards that.

I have transgender friends who are fine reading/watching shows from the perspective of straight men, though.

I'm fine with sexy descriptions of people, but this issue really does crop up the most when it's a straight male MC. It's not just the sexualisation: it's that they failed to write anything sexy, and their similies and metaphors are wildly inappropriate and create eyebleach imagery instead.
I read plenty of sexualised descriptions in yuri, and even the worst writer doesn't usually mess up that badly.
 

CarburetorThompson

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Yes. In fact it can sometimes help if I can’t. Why would I want to read about a boring loser who I can identify with.
 
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Theirl

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Yes, but the character must be interesting by itself if its a fastfood mc in a generic novel i want to self insert myself cause hmmm reasons =p
 

Temple

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A vast majority of webnovels are for self-inserts, and so that's what we're used to. A long time ago, I wouldn't read female MCs too because I can't self-insert for the power fantasy/wish-fulfilment aspect. However, I eventually tried Worm (because it was very popular back then), which isn't a reader self-insert story, and that affected my tastes. Fast forward a few years and I'm writing novels that aren't for self-insert. Obviously, marketability is an issue, and even if it does gain a decent following, there are different dynamics compared to the usual.
 
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