You know, the idea that to be a feminist writer you have to write positively for and about women had never occurred to me either -- writing feminism for a feminine/ist audience might be said to be preaching to the choir, and writing about women for women is simply targetting the majority of the reading audience. I have to presume that writing positively about women doesn't mean writing every female character with only positive qualities (or all positive with just one humanising flaw - like most modern stereotypical protagonists) because then you pretty much can't explore any serious themes or questions and the women characters become even more boring (and there are a lot of whiny, mean, unsympathetic, boring female characters in fiction written for women).

I've never aspired to be a Feminist writer but I am becoming disturbed at the way that feminism is being redefined so that I'm not allowed to call myself feminist (or even female, given that I *know* what a tomboy grin looks like -- yeah, been kicked out of the girl's club before).

Actually you can take that as beyond disturbed... I'm getting just a bit irritated. Why do these guys get to define me?