I think a lot of the pet peeves boil down to cases where the female characters are flatter - every female fits into some kind of box of stereotypes (they embody all the stereotypically feminine traits, they're fulfill the female roles - sex worker, mom, love interest only), and all the diverse characters (the support tech person! the mentor! the antagonist!) are male by default. Where male is the default, I guess is what I'm saying.

This is your friendly reminder that there are more than two genders :) Thank you as always for the interesting content that makes me think more about what I read. I definitely want to check out Stephen's books now. One of the things that annoys me is when a female character is supposed to be "strong" by not liking any female-coded pursuits. They all have to wear trousers and hate embroidery. Some of us like knitting *and* swordfighting. People are messy - that's what makes us interesting.