The discussion in question to be found here; and while I`m not going to argue on on the forum, because I have promised I won`t, I suppose I`m free to post this on my own blog.
I do not understand why books should be feminist, unless written by feminists for feminists. Likewise, I do not think books should be chauvinist, unless written by chauvinists for chauvinists. And so on.
Matter is, various Champions of Rights tend to overdo. Rights is a serious issue, and those sniffing for violations of (women`s, minorities, children`s, whatever) rights where no violation exists make the very concept of Rights ridiculous. Even disgusting, at times.
They demand that Mark Twain books be banned or rewritten. Racist!!! They fine a publisher for publishing a children`s book because there`s a passage telling about gnomes making calvados. Promoting alcoholism, and at tender age to boot!!! And now Tolkien anti-feminist, and Heinlein misogynist... Please! What next?
Y`know, folks, you are free to scream your rights from rooftops, but please leave books alone. Unless you can write better.
See, I suspect this is not really about rights but about spite, rather...
And while I do care about rights in the true sense of the word, I do repeat I do not care much for either chauvinist or feminist or gay or such when that means ever searching for violations where there`s not a vestige of violation. Bad for equilibrium, I declare. Again.
BTW... I`m a smoker, which means my rights are violated everywhere I might go. But I do not run around brandishing a Smoker`s Banner. Nor do I call non-smokers and smoker haters ugly, or any other names like that. I do not demand that books criticizing and condemning smokers be banned. And I do not smoke around pregnant women or young children; never did, even when there were no bans so numerous today. What about my rights?
I`m glad nobody has, as yet, demanded banning or editing The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings because Gandalf and hobbits and dwarves smoke pipes. Because the accusation would be not invented, unlike the "anti-feminism"...