I wish I could help, this is interesting. Can you even think of any male “mother figures” in fiction, just the basic concept without the more specific romance dynamic? It seems like a fascinating thought experiment that some author should have wanted to examine before. I can’t think of any examples even of the basic concept, but it’s possible that I have read male mother figures in books and just didn’t register or remember them as such. I guess the only way to do it (without gender stereotyping like “he’s warm and not stern so he’s more motherly than fatherly”) would be having him remind a specific character of her specific mother, or her specific subjective idea of mothers.
I wish I could help, this is interesting. Can you even think of any male “mother figures” in fiction, just the basic concept without the more specific romance dynamic? It seems like a fascinating thought experiment that some author should have wanted to examine before. I can’t think of any examples even of the basic concept, but it’s possible that I have read male mother figures in books and just didn’t register or remember them as such. I guess the only way to do it (without gender stereotyping like “he’s warm and not stern so he’s more motherly than fatherly”) would be having him remind a specific character of her specific mother, or her specific subjective idea of mothers.