Calling all women

[Firefoot]

When high school students write poetry, a fair percentage of the female students can write from a male POV, creating a poem whose speaker is a male, imagining his character and getting into his POV. However, teachers report that male students almost never write poems with a female speaker or create/imagine female characters.

A good point. I've had some experience with this in the form of my brother - he finds it extremely strange that I should play male characters in RPG's.

You can argue till your blue in the face about what an author meant by something, but first and foremost should be a good story.

I agree one hundred percent. Of the books I do not read for school, I do not consider the author's intent in writing the book in very many of them. I might think about a book, especially a very good one, but that isn't my goal of reading - I read for enjoyment. If I don't enjoy a book, I will not finish it (prime example: Jane Eyre. Couldn't stand it). And that enjoyment comes primarily from the plot. I hate having to slog through books (*coughGreatExpectationscough*). In my leisure books I rarely go any deeper analytically than plot level.