You know, I might be one of those rare women who's pretty neutral on the subject of child-rearing. I don't have kids, don't work with them, am not related to any that I know of (at least on this continent), don't know many people who have them IRL. They're just not a part of my daily (or monthly, or yearly) life at all, and that's fine. If I DID have to deal with them a lot, I'm pretty sure I'd be Snapish to the max. Not that I lack nurturing completely, but I have just about enough for my cats, my writing, and my adult friends going through bad patches.

I'm really glad Porphyria brought up the subject of identification. It's funny - my therapist reads my fanfic. She likes them as stories but she also, you know, reads them like a therapist, and she kind of missed the analytical boat with the Ravenous series by assuming too easily that my main POV character was Hermione. Well, yes and no. Snape's voice is just as comfortable and natural (and yes, liberating) for me to write in, and his viewpoint on various matters (particularly the "innocence"/"ignorance") conflation, is every bit as um...shared by the author.

I've always had a pretty close relationship with my animus, though. Why do so many lit-crit-101 types assume we always identify most with characters of the same gender? Not always true, not at all.

PS: Hello Helichrysm, dear!