The history of genre-related distinctions and concepts is as rich as it is complicated and interwoven with cultural, social and political norms and debates. That history, however, is worth more than our archival interest, in so far as it permeates our own social outlooks and aspirations for change right here and now. A country like the United States, for example, which is often taken for granted as a standard of modernity, is currently the place for some of the fiercest debates about gender (and sexuality) with strident demands for changes to textbooks and curricula, with many voices arguing for a return to traditional family values, which are decried in turn by other voices as blatantly discriminatory.