Mmmm on a deeper level haha (I'm philosophising). Maybe there something to the fact that male characters are expected to be "tough" and "independent" and "non-emotional" and survive on their own and so dead parents is an unconscious choice based on toxic ideas of masculinity.

But also sometimes parents require a lot of extra fleshing out that authors may want to dedicate to other characters. Better to write no parents than write them half heartedly haha. Orrrr they could be dead as a way to serve plot. (In my story out of 6 male characters, 3 of them have dead parents MY BAD. But hey 50/50😌).

Most of my characters have dead or super horrible awful parents. No in between

Because LORE

To Give him trauma

Mine unalived his mother… does that still count? 🫣🙃