Kicking Arse and Taking Names

I've been thinking about urban fantasy and the kickass heroine lately, and chatting about her over at Marianne de Pierres' Facebook page.

I first started turning this over in my mind when I read a piece on critiquing groups in one of the Wiscon Chronicles by a woman who struggled because her female characters, who acted logically within her own cultural context, were being criticised for not being more active, aggressive, "kickass".

And I wondered if the kickass heroine had maybe become a...