One thing I noticed when reading “Color Struck” and “John Redding Goes to Sea” was the discussion of how the women in the tales behaved. To be honest, I felt a little uncomfortable with how Matty and Stella treated John in “John Redding”, and with how Emma treated John in “Color Struck”. In both tales, the women are clearly made out to be the villains in the story with their unreasonable demands, refusal to listen to reason, their attitudes, and their jealousy. I wondered, why was the focus of these stories so clearly on these bad women? What was the point of making sure that these characters were so clearly in the wrong, to the point where readers might feel almost hatred for them?