I suspect, part of the problem, is a tendency to categorize. To place lables on people or classify. If a woman isn't into jewelry, doesn't wear dresses, is tough - than she's butch. OR if a guy likes jewelry and fashion and design, he must be gay. It's stupid, but we do it.

And, admittedly, I have a knee-jerk reaction to characters like Penny - partly because I see too many of them and partly, I guess, because I feel the pressure to be like them.

It's almost as if, I feel, the world is telling me that if I'm not more like the Carrie Bradshaw's, the Penny's, etc...then I can't succeed, I can't find the guy, etc. That there is something wrong with me for not being "girly" or "feminine" enough. Part of that may be in my head, but when I flip through Vogue, or a fashion mag, or catalogue, or Entertainment Weekly, or surf the channels of my tv, or even go to a romantic comedy - all I see are women who look like and act like Penny or Sarah Jessica Parker's Carrie, or Billie Piper's Rose...and I get frustrated. My guess is much of the criticism on line towards Whedon's internet hit - is due to that frustration. Why is it directed at Whedon? Because he gave us Buffy and Faith and Willow and Darla and Zoe and Cordelia...and we hoped, perhaps wrongly, that he would give us more of the same. More women that were like us and not the same old same old.

I hope that makes some sense. Thank you again for the discussion.