User blog comment:Alexander C. Miles/Numerous Controversies/@comment-2.220.248.79-20140621133735/@comment-27202257-20140621175033

Honestly, I don't see why their needs to be a "reason" for a protagonist to be female. I don't see the same thought process going into why a protagonist "should be" male, so it suggests that male characters are the default and female-ness has to be justified.

I really wouldn't mind there being a female protagonist in that period because...well, as long as there have been men, there have been women. And they've made major contributions to society, but many of them have been removed from public knowledge by a very WASPM system of record-keeping. Ever heard of ? Plus, this series is all about people who work in the shadows, outside society's political norms. That seems like a perfect place for a woman who can't affect social change elsewise.

I've seen the argument many times that women shouldn't be "shoehorned" into stories where it isn't appropriate for them to be. I just take issue with the notion of what is "appropriate".