# Writing > General Writing >  the most common character in a story?

## cacian

I think the most common character I have come across throughout the books/films and stories tend be:

*a)* _a male,_
*b)* _middle aged,_
*c)* _white_
*d)*_ with issues or a past_
*e)* _and heterosexual_.

what are your thoughts?

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## Buh4Bee

What about single white female?

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## BienvenuJDC

Sounds like the start of a thread intended to show how white middle aged heterosexual men have been oppressing everyone else for ages. Do you really think that this is the case? Why is it that I often feel subject to being a whipping post?

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## cacian

> Sounds like the start of a thread intended to show how white middle aged heterosexual men have been oppressing everyone else for ages. Do you really think that this is the case? Why is it that I often feel subject to being a whipping post?


No I don't this is the case but what I am saying is this is what I have noticed.
This is not a thread about getting to anyone.
Ok let's put it another way, what do you think is the most commonest of charcaters in most stories and films?

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## cacian

> What about single white female?


LOL
This reminds me of the movie called that doesn't it?

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## BienvenuJDC

> No I don't this is the case but what I am saying is this is what I have noticed.
> This is not a thread about getting to anyone.
> Ok let's put it another way, what do you think is the most commonest of charcaters in most stories and films?


Since there are a large number of white males in London and in America, I suppose that the odds would make it likely. However, if you were in another time and place, it would probably not be the case.

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## cacian

> Since there are a large number of white males in London and in America, I suppose that the odds would make it likely.


The cliche stereroyped character in most stories is male hetereosexual.
It is very rare that it is portrayed as your normal everyday person with all the shapes and sizes and colours.



> However, if you were in another time and place, it would probably not be the case.


In what ways?
I think all the books I have read and all the films I have watched and all the bibles/religious literary texst I know about have as their central character all the characteristic I have cited above.

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## WillardS

I though this was going to lead to an intelligent discussion on common characters and archetypes. But alas....

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## BienvenuJDC

Ok, if you're going to Bible stories, they are NOT white males, and there are quite a number of females in those Bible stories as well. Maybe you assume that some of these males are heterosexual when the plot doesn't require the sexual orientation to be mentioned. How much of your considerations are assumed?

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## BienvenuJDC

> I though this was going to lead to an intelligent discussion on common characters and archetypes. But alas....


Please don't be so smug... :Nono:

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## WillardS

> Please don't be so smug...


I thought you were going to start the intelligent conversation...but alas....

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## BienvenuJDC

> I thought you were going to start the intelligent conversation...but alas....


Please then enlighten us...

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## WillardS

> Please then enlighten us...


Phff.

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## cacian

> I though this was going to lead to an intelligent discussion on common characters and archetypes. But alas....


Please lead the way..this is open to anyone with intelligence such as yours. :Smile5:

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## BienvenuJDC

> Please lead the way..this is open anyone with intelligence such as you.


I thought we were getting warmed up to a good conversation...(just took me a little bit to calm my defensiveness)

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## cacian

> Ok, if you're going to Bible stories, they are NOT white males, and there are quite a number of females in those Bible stories as well. Maybe you assume that some of these males are heterosexual when the plot doesn't require the sexual orientation to be mentioned. How much of your considerations are assumed?


Hi Bien
I hope you do understand I am not after putting anybody down.
Let's take two books/ Pride Prejudice/ Jane Eyre
Two films Braveheart/Gladiators/The Matrix
Bible/ Moses/Jesus

I seem to notice that there is a pattern of the samish typecast main character which is steroetyped into someone that does not really apply nor exist in everyday life.
None of this type of character anyone could identify with regardless of skin colour or religion.

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## BienvenuJDC

> Hi Bien
> I hope you do understand I am not after putting anybody down.
> Let's take two books/ Pride Prejudice/ Jane Eyre
> Two films Braveheart/Gladiators/The Matrix
> Bible/ Moses/Jesus
> 
> I seem to notice that there is a pattern of the samish typecast main character which is steroetyped into someone that does not really apply nor exist in everyday life.
> None of this type of character anyone could identify with regardless of skin colour or religion.


Agreed...
While Braveheart is a historical account within Scotland (and the UK in general) one would expect there to be even an exclusion of anyone BUT white middle-aged males. There are some women, and there is even a homosexual. One must admit that most of the people in the world (and the people of that time and place) are in fact heterosexual. But the prince of England is presumably (more than presumed) homosexual.

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## cacian

[QUOTE]


> Agreed...
> While Braveheart is a historical account within Scotland (and the UK in general) one would expect there to be even an exclusion of anyone BUT white middle-aged males


I have always been intrigued by this figure and in particular the name' Braveheart' which I thought is rather strange because
*a)*scottish are portrayed as highlanders wearing kilt
*b)* to have a more or less a very scottish name 
*c)* _braveheart_ as a name reminds me of American Indians and the way they use names to call themselves which usually relate to nature and signify something..like _golden hawke_ .
I keep thinking _Richard The Lion heart_ and how the word _heart_ seems to be repetitive here between the latter and _Braveheart._Another name comes to mind is_ Robin Hood_ again it is rather unenglish to name an important historical with names that does quite not fit the cultural setting of their origin.
Yet again all these three characters are white male and heterosexual.




> One must admit that most of the people in the world (and the people of that time and place) are in fact heterosexual.





> But the prince of England is presumably (more than presumed) homosexual.[/


Who do you mean by the Prince of England?

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## BienvenuJDC

> Who do you mean by the Prince of England?


Longshank's son is homosexual.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a664vyjFzgk

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## Darcy88

> Longshank's son is homosexual.
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a664vyjFzgk


I saw Braveheart too.

"They may take our lives, but they'll never take - OUR FREEDOM!" 

**** yeah.

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## cacian

> Longshank's son is homosexual.
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a664vyjFzgk


Hey Bien thank you for that I totally skipped that bit for some reasons and I have watched Braveheart so many times.
I cannot believe I did not click with that bit.
Humm... incredible how no sound makes so much sound.
It now makes sense why I did think Braveheart was a bit too iffy.

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## cacian

> I saw Braveheart too.
> 
> "They may take our lives, but they'll never take - OUR FREEDOM!" 
> 
> **** yeah.


I would have prefered it if it was like this

'They may NOT take our lives and they'll never take - OUR FREEDOM!" 

It would have been more effective.

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## Darcy88

> I would have prefered it if it was like this
> 
> 'They may NOT take our lives and they'll never take - OUR FREEDOM!" 
> 
> It would have been more effective.


No way. The way it was put showed that they preferred death to bondage. That is courage.

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## BienvenuJDC

> No way. The way it was put showed that they preferred death to bondage. That is courage.


Courage shown in Sacrifice...

Kennedy showed much courage and sacrifice when he testified in the trial clearing Horatio of charges of mutiny.

Another great characteristic....loyalty

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## Darcy88

[QUOTE=cacian;1122981]


> I have always been intrigued by this figure and in particular the name' Braveheart' which I thought is rather strange because
> *a)*scottish are portrayed as highlanders wearing kilt
> *b)* to have a more or less a very scottish name 
> *c)* _braveheart_ as a name reminds me of American Indians and the way they use names to call themselves which usually relate to nature and signify something..like _golden hawke_ .
> I keep thinking _Richard The Lion heart_ and how the word _heart_ seems to be repetitive here between the latter and _Braveheart._Another name comes to mind is_ Robin Hood_ again it is rather unenglish to name an important historical with names that does quite not fit the cultural setting of their origin.
> Yet again all these three characters are white male and heterosexual.
> 
> 
> 
> Who do you mean by the Prince of England?


I think the answer is brightly obvious. If you read as much Persian and Arab and Chinese and Indian and African-American literature as you read literature of Europe and its colonies you'd find the books populated by non-white individuals. The reason most of the characters are male is because most of the books were written by men. But even then, most books have female characters and many have them as the main character. Why the abundance of heterosexual characters? Because most people are heterosexual. I just zipped through a good portion of Plutarch's Lives and there most of the "characters" were bisexual. In a less homophobic culture I'm sure you'd see more bisexuals, but there would probably still be a majority of heterosexuals and therefore more fictional characters who are heterosexual than not. 

European literature displays a tendency to focus on white heterosexual males because that's the demographic that writes and in many cases reads the books. Even a gay man might be compelled to portray heterosexual characters out of a desire to have those characters be more easily relatable to his readership. 

Kind of unrelated, but around the world there is a kind of self-iinflicted racism going on. In India and South America and probably elsewhere white is considered right and people strive to look as European as possible. I'm sure in South America its because the dominant class there politically and materially is predominantly descended from Spanish settlers as opposed to the bulk of the population which is more mixed possessing Spanish and indigenous elements. In India maybe its because England ruled that land for some time and American culture has been exported round the globe. 

Anyway.

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## Svidrigailov

> Another name comes to mind is_ Robin Hood_ again it is rather unenglish to name an important historical with names that does quite not fit the cultural setting of their origin.


Robin Hood is a mythical figure whose legend has changed at the whims of numerous balladeers, poets, novelists and screenwriters; the history we have of him is this slippery, ever-changing figure who only exists in the imaginations of myriad storytellers and their audiences. When the character first appeared, he was not accompanied by a friar nor did he long for a Marian, and most importantly he didn't steal from the wealthy and donate to the penniless. Furthermore, he's a bloodthirsty rogue in some of his earlier iterations.

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## stlukesguild

I think the answer is brightly obvious. If you read as much Persian and Arab and Chinese and Indian and African-American literature as you read literature of Europe and its colonies you'd find the books populated by non-white individuals. The reason most of the characters are male is because most of the books were written by men. But even then, most books have female characters and many have them as the main character. Why the abundance of heterosexual characters? Because most people are heterosexual. I just zipped through a good portion of Plutarch's Lives and there most of the "characters" were bisexual. In a less homophobic culture I'm sure you'd see more bisexuals, but there would probably still be a majority of heterosexuals and therefore more fictional characters who are heterosexual than not.

Why did anyone even need to explain this? One would assume that everything you have posted here should be simply a matter of using common sense and maybe the smallest bit of logic. Amazing how nearly all the characters in the Shanameh are Persian. Now if I could only figure out why Hokusai painting nothing but Japanese women... it must have been some fetish on his part. :Rolleyes:  :Ihih:  :Biggrin5:

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## Darcy88

> I think the answer is brightly obvious. If you read as much Persian and Arab and Chinese and Indian and African-American literature as you read literature of Europe and its colonies you'd find the books populated by non-white individuals. The reason most of the characters are male is because most of the books were written by men. But even then, most books have female characters and many have them as the main character. Why the abundance of heterosexual characters? Because most people are heterosexual. I just zipped through a good portion of Plutarch's Lives and there most of the "characters" were bisexual. In a less homophobic culture I'm sure you'd see more bisexuals, but there would probably still be a majority of heterosexuals and therefore more fictional characters who are heterosexual than not.
> 
> Why did anyone even need to explain this? One would assume that everything you have posted here should be simply a matter of using common sense and maybe the smallest bit of logic. Amazing how nearly all the characters in the Shanameh are Persian. Now if I could only figure out why Hokusai painting nothing but Japanese women... it must have been some fetish on his part.


I know right. The Old Testament ought to be abundantly peopled with a wide international array of races, of Chinese and Polynesians and Eskimos. Why is it that its so overwhelmingly stocked with Hebrew characters? I don't get it.

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## cacian

> I know right. The Old Testament ought to be abundantly peopled with a wide international array of races, of Chinese and Polynesians and Eskimos. Why is it that its so overwhelmingly stocked with Hebrew characters? I don't get it.


Very good point indeed.
WHy Hebrews only?
The other thing I am interested in now is the origin of the word HEBREW.

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## Darcy88

> Very good point indeed.
> WHy Hebrews only?
> The other thing I am interested in now is the origin of the word HEBREW.


Seriously?

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