I actually wrote a post about this trend -- and also the trend of competent women having to screw up in order to give the male characters a moment in the spotlight. It prompted an interesting conversation, too. Should you (or others) be so interested: http://nonnycat.livejournal.com/480815.html
It is incredibly frustrating to me and part of why I am mostly reading YA these days. I've found YA fiction to have a greater prevalence of multiple female characters, that have relationships with each other that don't boil down to protagonist/villain, or whose heroine puts down the friend for being different than her (such as how Anita Blake puts down her supposed best friend for enjoying feminine things -- it is disturbing that a requirement for "strong female character" in urban fantasy seems to boil down to being "one of the boys").
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2012-07-06 05:00 am (UTC)It is incredibly frustrating to me and part of why I am mostly reading YA these days. I've found YA fiction to have a greater prevalence of multiple female characters, that have relationships with each other that don't boil down to protagonist/villain, or whose heroine puts down the friend for being different than her (such as how Anita Blake puts down her supposed best friend for enjoying feminine things -- it is disturbing that a requirement for "strong female character" in urban fantasy seems to boil down to being "one of the boys").