Write Away

Thank you! It's great to be welcomed. :D Your comment was great, and touched on many of the concerns I've had that some "strong" female characters were being used as a subtle form of misogyny, as in "She may be a girl but she's manly, so she's awesome!" And even worse, "Eeeew, this guy and that girl are girly, so they're inferior/awful (especially the guy)."

It's crazy-making that female characters receive more scrutiny than male ones, as though male were the default and female characters somehow have to justify their existence. I think the author in the OP was trying to say that a boring male stereotype doesn't become any more interesting in a female form, though unfortunately he himself ended up using a boring female stereotype instead.

The best way to avoid stereotypes is to remember that you're creating a bunch of individuals. So no deciding that a character is female so that means she must have x, y, and z traits.

Quoted for truth. That's an excellent guideline for all "different" traits like race, sexual orientation, disability and so on.