I complete agree.

The issue I have with "strong female characters" is that every blogger and their mom seems to want to see more strong female characters. I think asking for strong characters over weak or purely-for-sex females is moving in the right direction. Female characters have so often been merely toys to play with or to progress the story or to challenge the real characters or so that the story has that necessary romance aspect. They are often caricatures because they only serve a single purpose and they don't need a full personality to serve that purpose. They are simply the girl that the guy must remember and dream about while he is off saving the world. Or the conflict of interest. Or the other person in the room so he doesn't talk to himself.

George R R Martin was praised for having female characters that we weren't able to hold into one box. While I am a huge fan of Martin's writing of dynamic characters and nuanced relationships between those characters, it does say something that he is recognized for having female characters that are as strong as they are weak and self-conscious as they are confident. You don't see authors who write equally dynamic male characters being praised for being able to write male characters. I simply find it interesting that it is assumed that an author is able to write male characters, but praised when they write equal female characters.

By the way, you write beautifully.