Sisters of Mercy

Is your female character a person or a proxy? Is the role of literature to mirror society, or shape it? In this work of philosophical short story fiction, the government has recruited jailed authors to write approved stories for the youth. In their first experiment the author writes about a male high school protagonist in a casual sexual relationship with a fellow student from a lower class. Throughout the story, the government sensors comment on the toxic male wish fulfillment in the story plot, as well as the lack of agency in the female characters. The story ends with the protagonist’s new girlfriend going off to college while he finishes high school. In the end, the review committee determines the authors writing is unusable, and that the author is likewise irredeemable in the new world order.