Did it ever occur to you that one can overinterprete such things, Ann? As an english teacher you are used to interprete texts and I'm sure you're great at what you do. Given your excellent FDK-skills I cannot say that I don't like your insights into problems like these. But I don't think that anyone paid much interest into general considerations on male and female rights when the show was created. And I don't think it's different with the people writing fanfics. The main purpose of the different story arcs was to make their coming together as difficult as humanly possible.
After all, where would have been the point in letting things go the easy way? Let's face it, Clark didn't tell Lois about Luthor as Superman. But that wasn't because it would have been out of character or because he cannot stand to approach Lois in his superhuman character. In the end it was, because the writers of this show didn't want it to be too easy. What if Lois had believed Superman? The show wouldn't have been the same. After all many good episodes wouldn't have worked if Clark and Lois had actually talked somewhere in the process.
