"Women’s empowerment hasn’t been able to take hold universally to the point where it’s not an issue anymore."

The Mists of Avalon
Marion Zimmer (1983)

When I was a kid, adventurous and dreamy, I often indulged in fantasies about taming dragons and riding on horseback through forested ravines with streaming locks of auburn hair. My place of freedom was a patch of woods in my subdivision that was later bulldozed to build more houses. One summer, while browsing the annual library sale of old books, a thick navy book with no dust jacket and gold leaf embossed writing fell off the shelf in front of me. I took this as a sign. I bought the book for probably 25 cents and then and there, swore I would read it no matter what. The book happened to be the tales of King Arthur told through the perspective of his half-sister, Morgan le Fay. Rather than just being portrayed as an evil witch, she was a woman w...