Does sex matter?

I’ve always been drawn to female authors. Occasionally, a male author will spark my interest (usually judged entirely on the cover art, I’ll admit), but I find that female characters are what I’m after – in my experience they have been portrayed more realistically (emotional depth, etc) by women than men, probably because they are one. Female heroines are pictured on almost all of the books in my library – all with one fantastic ability or another. But why? I guess there doesn’t have to be a reason why, but I had to ask. I’m a woman, I like reading books about women. That’s clear enough, right?

But should I really be biased on the sex of the author? Somehow reading a book written by a man about a female main character doesn’t ring true. He may be a wonderful author, but somehow just knowing it’s not written by a woman changes how I see the character. Plus, most books by male authors are about male main characters – as I’ve found in my limited experience, though I am an avid reader.

Unfortunately, since I have started studying the art of writing full-time as I write my own novel, I analyze everything. Everything. It’s awful. I’m near the end of my first ‘fun’ book I have read in maybe five months (at least a book of my choosing, not from a school program on the ‘Best American Fiction’) and I’m stuck on a terrible typo from the first quarter of the novel! Eek! Does this mean that I’m going to analyze and critique every single book I ever read from this point on? Will this make my bias of male authors that much worse? Am I doomed to be tainted by my sex bias and find fault in even my favorite female authors? Reading has always been my favorite pastime. Now, it feels like I’m working when I pick up a book. I read to relax. I read to be entertained. I read to have my emotions run amuck. I read to get OUT of my head, not back into it.

Maybe for the time being I will give myself allowances on my critiquing (of female or male authors), since I am over my head in learning the art of writing at this particular moment. Once I get more comfortable in my writing skin, there may come a time when I can read for fun again. Wow that sounds dreary. I’m sure you know what I mean. Maybe I’ll even branch out and read about male main characters. Who knows? I do own a few books with male main characters, but, honestly, I keep them because they have enticing female characters surrounding them. I’m just fixated. Can that be fixed? Should I be ‘fixed’? Does sex really matter that much?