Evelyn, thank you for adding historical texture to this experiment. I agree that L. Frank Baum and Lewis Carroll were breaking moulds by using young female protagonists. The gender bias and sexism to which I am referring is the more subtle variety: it is still more acceptable for the little girl to be weeping in this story than a little boy. Changing the gender exposes these social norms by forcing us to reimagine each scenario. What makes one sex sympathetic (a girl crying to go home) can make another sex pathetic (a boy crying because he is scared) and vice versa. Regardless of the author’s intent, social, moral and cultural context is difficult to escape.

The most radical part of Baum’s version of this story is that the male Wizard of Oz is not the saviour everyone thinks he is, and Dorothy discovers she has had the power to go home all along. When you swap genders, this ending loses its power. But again, that says a lot about how far society has come in terms of gender equality and how far we still have left to go.