Dorothy... and Feminism

While trying to remember what I was going to do next, my boyfriend said to me, "your teacher was an idiot!" "What teacher?" I replied. "The one who told you not to write the book report." What the hell was he talking about? Suddenly, it dawned on me. He was referring to a story I told him a couple of weeks ago, about an experience I had in 6th grade, which of course was ages ago. Anyhow, I told him about an interaction I had with my teacher regarding a book report. The assignment was to read a biography and write a "book report" on the person we "learned" about. When the class went to the library, all of the kids scattered to find a biography of someone that they liked. Some kids picked the usual historical political figures, such as Abe Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson. Other kids chose movie stars and musicians, like Madonna and Macaulay Culkin. I, on the other hand, chose L. Frank Baum, the author of The Wizard of Oz, as well as a bunch of other "Oz" stories. I was just fascinated by the movie, and had read the book as well. I was extremely excited to come across the biography of the guy who wrote The Wizard of Oz.
This is where it turns crazy. My teacher sneered back at me saying, "why would you ever pick him? Why not pick someone more famous?". She spewed out a bunch of nonsense similar to this. Truthfully, I was humiliated. So humiliated in fact, that here I still remember almost two decades later. But I didn't give in to her idiocy... I wrote about him anyway.
Truth be told, I don't remember much of anything that I wrote in that report. But that's okay, because today is the day that I rediscovered L. Frank Baum, and I'm glad. His stories, particularly The Wizard of Oz, are full of allegories. The Wizard of Oz is influenced many ideas, including feminism, which is really cool, especially seeing the book was written at the turn of the 20th century. There is some interesting reading to be had on the subject, so check it out here and here! There's plenty more out there also. Yah! for Dorothy the Superhero and The Wicked Witch of the West as the Evil Villian!