The generalization's actually kind of my point. ;) You really have to think back to the time...things were just building up to Europe's suffragist movements, which took place much earlier than they did in America. A lot of the literature that we see is, in a very real way, one side of the debate or the other, even when the author wasn't consciously thinking of that. Instead of taking offense to older literature, it's much more fun to analyze it in its historical context. *nods* Even when women seem submissive to us, they might have been quite cheeky in their own time. Going back a little further, like Eponine in Les Miserables. Fawn-eyed over a cute guy or not, that was one tough missy. ^^

Actually, I am a pretty darned strong feminist, but I work from the standpoint of genuine equal treatment, not "all men can go hire themselves out as crash-test dummies!" ^_^