Women as men, men as women

This is not about sex change surgery.

I just finished Douglas Kennedy's Leaving this World.

The photo is the Amazon cover shot. The book I have has a different woman on the cover. But covers are not what this blog is about but I'd love to know the marketing decisions behind the change.

Many years ago at a writers conference, the workshop leader said men should never write as women, women should never write as men. She also cautioned not to write what you haven't experienced.

That would certainly limit a writer to autobiography disguised as fiction.

I had recently written about a vasectomy from the POV of a man. Now research did not involve a sex change operation followed by a vasectomy, but I did ask good friends whom I knew had the surgery what it was like. Going up to strange males and saying "If you had a vasectomy,  can you tell me about it?" was not an option.

The same friends read what I had written and declared it valid.

About that time I was also reading, Memoirs of Geisha. The author had never been either a woman or a geisha, but had created a 100% believable world.

Kennedy's protagonist, Jane Howard, is definitely a woman. Kennedy is a man.  And Jane is believable. One of the male characters is less so.

In writing from male POV's thanks to that workshop, I'm much more careful. So like much advice on all topics given, it should be weighed against reality, some accepted, some declined.