Last week due to other people’s work schedules and illness, Uncle Dave was in charge of homing schooling my niece Mona. That meant Dr. Who episodes for science class ice cream with lunch and the writing assignment was a book report on the comic book Lumber Janes. Math was only a fifteen minute exercises on the computer but literature was an hour discussion on in media res, character, and setting.

We talked about whether or not gender was important in a story? I asked her if the Harry Potter stories would have been different if the main character was Herminie and not Harry? What if Star Wars had been Leia’s Story not Luke’s? Her answers where thoughtful and concise for a nine year old.

It also got me thinking about female characters. I do not consider myself a feminist, nor do I consider myself an anti-feminist. I consider myself a…