Good talk. Very much agree with the main premise, that female characters are simplistically derived from male characters or treated as an afterthought in a lot of media. I’m the father of an incredible daughter, I want her to have as many options as possible in life.
One niggle. I don’t think the gender binary is as arbitrary or false as she makes it out to be. By and large, physiology dictates gender. The binary is typical but not universal. A better path is to acknowledge that most people fit into one or the other category, open up the societal roles for each gender, and make room the people that genuinely don’t fit into the typical binary.
Second niggle. Companies do not have infinite money to market their goods. If the target audience is 80% male, they will tailor the advertising to attract as many customers as possible. It’s not about demeaning anyone, but attracting the most people to buy a product. That’s understandable. Having a single female Smurf in an entire village is not—and kinda creepy if you ask me.
