I've heard it argued that a lot of the current idea of what makes a "strong independent female character" came out of butch lesbians hijacking the feminist moment in an attempt to expand their dating pool, by forcing other women to see them as the ideal female form.
Ehh, certainly reactions back and forth (the butch lesbian image becoming more glorified arguably rising in the 80s-90s as reaction to some explicit villification and othering that had been done because lipstick lesbians were a more palatable sell in terms of imagery) but these are rather universal themes and struggles primarily centered around the virtues and principles of the sexes (or of humanity in general)--that even 'woke' franchises seek to address and center about in their own way (and with their own author's biases and presumptions as to where those lie or not).
The appropriateness of women being written as 'men with tits' or as a more 'sensetive' sex in-tune with emotions or empathy or what-not is long-running in terms of art and media...And, honestly, the lack of corollary situation vis-a-vis male characters ('woman with dick' as a character archetype isn't really a term...excepting very particular fetish stuff) is probably indicative of some sexist presumptions from the get-go on a principled level. Sure, there's 'nancy-boy' men who are sensitive, but they're more defined by lack of manly virtues than the presence of womanly. Maybe someone can think of an exception or alternative? I'm drawing a blank.
Point being, the extent to which 'masculine' or 'feminine' virtues even are such to begin with is arguable (is 'empathy' a distinctively female virtue? Or merely a human one we should all aspire to that, perhaps, more women achieve?) and portrayal of all this necessarily tends to be complicated whenever someone tries to be nuanced or thematic about it--because whether or not it's the case is arguable and 'good' instances of it will tend to leave room for judgement and argument (this being one where some works fail).
To use an example---It's a straightforward instance of it, but the somewhat famous dichotomy between Ripley and Vasquez in the Aliens movie somewhat sidles up to this whole area of discussion: is Vasquez a woman who's adopted the 'male' virtues and emblems of the military structure she's part of (and is that military, necessarily, a 'masculine' organization to promote those virtues and emblems) or are those virtues she displays (bravery, honor, protecting others) and that the military 'wants' and promotes just human ones in general everyone should aspire to. On the flipside, is the more 'traditionally feminine' caring, empathetic, and protective attitude of Ripley towards Newt (a young human child) a product of biology and 'feminine virtues' that are promoted by evolution itself as a hard-wired response, or just virtues all people should aspire to and achieve regardless of sex. Notably, there's overlap between both those depictions (protecting others comes into both), so even their
presence itself could be argued.
Maybe this is my flower-child hippy coming out (and my apologies for going off on a tangent in response--not much of this has to do with your comment
), but modes of expression, self-images, and social presentation are somewhat complicated items that modern media...has a bad habit of not doing very well because more 'flat' identities especially in this whole realm ('butch lesbian', 'flamboyant gay man', 'closeted man/woman', 'bigoted straight person', etc.) seem to be in vogue because writers lost the definition of 'subtlety'. But individual characters and appropriateness in specific stories and universes is really where much of this debate SHOULD take place but oftentimes doesn't--and universes or stories which used to focus upon aspects of one might get modernized or changed to go a different direction because of differing modern sensibilities...But as equally as there is or might be 'misogyny' and a desire for 'pretty tits' or beefcake in older renditions of something (Conan and Red Sonja coming up previously), there might as well be elements of that above...search for universal value--and the imagery is kind've just a lagging indicator of that (I must admit to never having read comics on either of them, but presumably Red Sonja is somewhat of a 'woman doing Conan' type of thing? In which case that--and the specific portrayal--can quickly get you into the above issues on how much of depicted virtues and positives are inherent to sex and which are inherent to humanity--because I assume they're somewhat comparable characters with some kind of honor system and generally 'heroic' nature to them).