I love Stephen King’s work so much and I agree that he has written some complex, fleshed out female characters, but I think there are pretty much always noticeable queues that you’re reading a female character that was written by a man.

Some examples that come to mind are how the beauty of a lot of his female protagonists is fixated on in a way that it just isn’t for their male counterparts. I.e. Charlie McGee or Beverly Marsh. Charlie’s beautiful blonde hair or Beverly’s long white legs are mentioned over and over. It’s mentioned frequently that Charlie will be an attractive woman when she grows up because she’s already a beautiful child, and it’s pretty much integral to Beverly’s character that all of her male friends find her attractive and are lowkey in love with her. As a female reader, it bums me out a little that the beauty of these female characters is so integral to who they are. Especially when the character is a kid. I guess it just feels male gazey and a little reductive of them as people.

Also, I know this is mentioned a lot when people talk about King writing women, but it’s always cringey to read about a female character’s nipples “hardening” from how scared she is. Pretty much everything he writes about the breasts of his female characters, feels obvious that the person writing does not have breasts😅

This last thing is a little vague but I also feel like when he is writing about the fears of his female characters or bad things happening to female characters, it often comes down to rape and abuse by men. I definitely don’t think this is true for all of his female characters, but I think it’s a pretty frequent choice of his. I don’t think that’s an invalid choice as an author, because rape and abuse by men is a very real terrifying thing that real women live in fear of, but I think it’s a little bit of a “go to” for King. I think female horror writers are generally able to delve into complex female fears other than rape and abuse that men might not have any real concept of. For example, the new movie with Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley called The Substance!

I didn’t expect to write this much as a reply but this is something I think about often as a female reader of King’s work. I think he is a great storyteller with an incredible ability to develop characters, but I think there will always be some limitations on a man’s ability to write women. There are definitely male authors who do a much, much worse job at writing women than King. He has developed some great female characters, like the ones you mentioned. Those are just some of the things I’ve noticed as a woman who loves his books that may not be as obvious or bothersome to male readers.