Breaking the Glass Slipper on "Writing Characters of the Opposite Gender"

As humans living in the twenty-first century, Id like to think weve come a long way towards achieving equality between the sexes and rejecting established notions of gender. But is it far enough? After all, were still having these debates, highlighting prejudice, challenging ourselves to think outside the box. If gender equality truly existed, thered be no need to stage this conversation.

In fiction, men write women and women write men on a regular basis, some more or less successfully. Both...