To be honest, I have never really thought about if my gender influences my writing. I have sometimes thought, in the past, about why all my main characters from my fiction are girls- and why I just never, ever think of a story that centers around a boy. I can think of male side characters aplenty, but no matter how in-depth they are, they are never the main characters.
But that is as far as I have ever gotten in pondering how my gender influences my writing.
After reading the texts and discussing them in class this week, I realized that much of my writing does fit into the stereotypical women’s writing; that is, I tend to focus on relationships and personal connection, and less on individuality and frustrated adventures (as is often seen in texts by men).
In the end, I don’t know if it really matters, if I don’t want it to. It is actually hard to think of more specific ways that my gender affects my writing- at least for right now. There are other things that influence my writing a lot more, or that I intend to influence my writing: for example, my relationship with Christ, both languages that I speak, where I grew up, and the family dynamics with which I grew up. All of these have influenced my writing a lot more (both intentionally and unintentionally) than my gender has. While I’m sure that my gender has influenced my writing more than I realize, I don’t think that it matters as much as the other things I do want to influence my writing.
I agree! There are many other sources of influence that are much more influential than our gender. Gender DOES influence our writing but not to the extent that it should be put as a major influence, especially compared to the other influences you listed. I think it's sort of silly and funny sometimes how people thing gender defines the way you think, when really while it may have some impact, I don't think it has the impact everybody thinks it does.