Before i start, I want to let you know that "she does not die at this time" and daughter came up with a very nifty solution to our point of conflict.
But I wanna whinge anyway.

In discussion with daughter about a possible co-written YA novel, we discovered a generational divide; Her plot entails a woman meeting a young, weaker man, who tells her that he’s actually very powerful and has been put under a spell. Woman– a born troublemaker, which I liked, ends up helping him regain his powers, at which time he remembers that his powers are SO VERY AWESOME that he doesn’t need to be around regular humans at all, and off he goes. Woman, who tried out the superpowers, finds that she isn’t so good at them, learns that she doesn’t have to be the Queen Of The World and gets a human mate.

So, I can’t write that. All my life, as I told her, Robin Hood has gone off to play in the Merry Greenwood leaving Maid Marion at home; Lois Lane stands at her window watching Superman fly off; Gerd nearly destroys the world via mishandled magic while women cannot use magic because they cannot handle it and might destroy the world. Peter Pan assigns mothering duties to a girl.

Sarah Rees Brennan talked recently about her character Nick, and why she made him male. Nick has an extremely problematic personality, and we later learn the reason why– and honestly I did NOT see it coming. This character could have been female. But, said, Sara, when people learn the reasons behind the problems, she did NOT want them to be able to say; "See, this proves that REAL women don’t ever act that way!" and she wasn’t going to go there. Which is a reasonable and enlightened way to think, except that… Personally? I would have loved to read about a female Nikki, in the full realisation of HER situation, assessing HER new world, and making the decision she makes. Because I still haven’t read about a girl like that. As far as I’m concerned, Nick is Robin Hood going off to play in the woods. (although the Maids Marion are right on his heels in the next two sequels, guys!)

We nearly came to blows over this. Cami was very much concerned with her protag NOT becoming Superpowered. She has her reasons. I, second-waver that I am, was equally concerned with NOT letting another young lawyer, metaphorically speaking, be supported all the way through school on the back of a woman who remains a barrista after he takes the bar.

Wanna know how Cami saved The World ? Easy. We make the younger, weaker man with suppressed superpowers– a younger, weaker woman with suppressed superpowers. Now we have two women, and one of them can be all demony and shit, without people saying "aha, see, we knew real girls don’t act like that!"