At Tor.com, Liz Bourke writes about the double standard in how strong female characters are evaluated: “But show me a female character whose major characteristics are competence with violence, willingness to defy authority, and the occasional ability to make entertaining banter, and I’ll show you a character who—I am willing to guarantee you—has been dismissed as entirely lacking depth, or as a ‘man with breasts,’ or criticised for being insufficiently well-rounded, or not really ‘strong.’ (Look at the critiques sometimes leveled at, for example, Ilona Andrews’ Kate Daniels. Or any number of other urban fantasy female protagonists—it’s often urban fantasy that bears the brunt of this critique, since it’s the genre with the greatest preponderance of ass-kicking female characters.)It puts me in mind of that old adage, that a woman needs to be twice as good to go half as far as her male counterparts.” (The Gutter’s own Carol and Chris have written about “strong female characters” here and here.