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Do women write differently than men? (lemmy.today)
submitted 1 day ago by to c/feminism@lemmy.world
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Eight years ago I was tasked with writing blog posts for a tech event with little writing experience under my belt, so I was given an editor. Nothing changed my writing style more than she, who pointed out all the ways (she asserted) women hedge and weaken their language to minimize the impact of their words. It's a learned response, she told me, to not appear aggressive or unagreeable.

I still flinch every time I use the word "just," even if it just makes sense.

What do you think?

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[–] 9 points 1 day ago (1 child)

Man here.

One of my favorite crime writers is Karin Slaughter.

I've read dozens of stories written by men where a character remarks on how badly jailed child molesters are treated by their fellow prisoners.

Slaughter is the only one who pointed out that it was most likely because a lot of the prisoners had been abused as children and it wasn't a case of righteous anger as much as it was abuse victims getting the only revenge they could.

Sorry if off topic.

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  • [–] [S] 5 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    That's an interesting perspective. I was thinking of style when I wrote this but hadn't really dwelled on content.

    It's one of my pet theories that marginalized people while better suspence and horror because our life experience is more stressful, on average. I believe a more visceral understanding of stress and real life horror helps create that kind of depth in writing.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    Pretty much every stand up comic does jokes about how only traumatized people feel the need to be funny all the time.

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