When I first published “The Marvelous Land of Oz”, I encountered this approach. A reader tore into it for being “misogynistic” because there are negative female characters. In fact there’s a range of female characters, modeling different behaviors, and that’s kind of the point. The overall arc >

is pro-suffrage: for its time it was RADICALLY feminist. And yes, it achieved this by parodying the suffragettes and poking fun at some of them, but supporting the underlying struggle. I was so frustrated by the reader who couldn’t see beyond the outdated humor to the underlying message.