As a woman reader, I was reading "science fiction" and epic fantasy since I was about 14 years old. Granted there were few female heroines in the stories, but the epic struggle between Good and Evil was still fascinating, thrilling, and instructive. I didn't have issues with male dominance because I was unfortunate enough to live in a household with a GranDame (grandmother) who ruled the roost, and a mother who was psychologically and emotionally disturbed by Bipolar Disorder (she also had a tumor in her forebrain over over one eye when she was young, which was removed to save her life, with predictably devastating effects on her cognitive effectiveness).

Fortunately, Science Fiction and Fantasy saved my soul and my sanity. When I had the opportunity to read "The Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings", I was inspired by the moral valor of the people who struggled against the quintessential evil of the Dark Lord Sauron. The fact that the peoples of Middle Earth, including the incomparably beautiful, and valient High Elves, and the stunningly heroic valor of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins was marvelous beyond words--and their gender was hardly the issue of greatest merit to me.

I read everything I could find in the public library, in my high school library, and what I could borrow from friends. (Living fatherless with a beleaguered grandmother and a disabled mother was a challenging life with little resources.)

I loved Ursula leGuin's stories, among many others. I was not an angry or frustrated feminist who could not accept that my place in society was diminished by half because of my gender. I saw far too many female writers' books on the bookstore shelves challenging that view.