I agree 100% here. I really want more strong and wonderful women on my television and in my books and in my fic.

This particular essay addresses something different, though: fandom reactions to female characters. And really, this is a lot like the race discussion prompted by Ronon the Barista fic a while back. Ronon the Barista isn't racist; it's the context that makes it so. It's looking to patterns in our reactions and our thoughts for what they say about our own attitudes and ourselves rather than as condemnations of the source material. Not that the source material is spotless and shiny -- I'm VERY clear that I despise what is often done to women in canon -- but looking at how we react to a poorly sketched female character as opposed to a poorly sketched male character, for instance, is illuminating.

I would so dearly love to see a show where the woman fleeing the bad guy didn't trip or break her heel or break down in sobs/tears...all so the hero can help/save/defend/comfort her. I really hate that I know what people mean to say when they bitch about someone "feminizing" a guy because I hate that complex of stereotypes and I think it's as inappropriate to women as it is to men and ultimately says that to be weak and soft and indecisive is to be female when I know that's flat out wrong.