Why women are written so badly
There are conflicting forces dictating how women HAVE to be written.
This means they end up invulnerable, all-knowing, superhuman Mary Sues that can do no wrong. However, at the same time, they have to be 'damsels in distress' that need rescuing, although they are the most powerful forces in existence that need men like fish need bicycles.
The problem comes from wanting to show women as POWERFUL and INDEPENDENT - but also from wanting to show men as CANNON FODDER SLAVES and WORKHORSES for women, that need to be pedestalized by men.
This means men HAVE to do the dirty and hard work in movies (almost as much as in real life), so men can never be shown to be SUPERIOR to women, they're the dirty donkeys roaming in mud. This means, they have to do a woman's bidding, and the best way to show this servitude is to make a man work very hard to rescue some 'damsel in distress' that's ungrateful and doesn't appreciate the man's efforts at all. That'll show 'im!
(Just look at Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home - Kirk brings the woman into not only space, but the future, where people are spacefaring and not bound to one planet, and how does the woman reward the brave captain for all his efforts and this AMAZING gift for which anyone should be ridiculously grateful? By giving her femininity to him? By becoming his mate and companion? By serving him in at least some way?
Well, let's just say it's pretty darn annoying how it's shown in the movie, but that's just a symptom of the sickness that plagues this world, and by extension, movies)
Women CAN'T be the worthless, expendable workhorse that saves the world and a 'man in distress' (isn't it interesting how there are million praisewords for women, like 'damsel', 'maiden', etc., but not for men?), because we are all equal. I mean, because we live in patriarchy, where men are always shown as more valuab... wait, I am sure there's a commonly known reason somewhere.
Women also CAN'T do what men do. No matter how powerful, strong, independent 'boss babe' you make a woman (and even 'Cracked' made an After Hours-video about this), she's NEVER strong enough to humbly do a man's tedious, hard work.
She can be strong enough to destroy a planet-size spaceship with a mere thought, but she can never be strong enough to TAKE a punch, especially from a man. (This is why I love old Hong Kong movies, women are TRULY equal in those movies, taking punches and kicks to the face just as much as they dish them out, and the beauty of the martial arts-motion is just sublime).
Isn't it amazing how women are never allowed to have humanizing weaknesses and such trait, but they have to be Mary Sues that could never need rescuing, while at the same time, men have to be shown as 'expendable workhorses', so the damsel in distress-trope still needs to exist, and a man's motivation for whatever he does, STILL needs to be 'rescuing a woman' anyway.
Just look at a movie like 'Cypher', or almost any movie hollywood has made the last few decades - there's always injected romance, the woman plays a 'key role', but the man still has to be the one to do all the hard and dirty work.
There's also always, ALWAYS a scene, where a man denies a woman coming wiht him, because it's too dangerous,, then woman throws a temper tantrum, and the man 'reluctantly accepts'. (The Matrix, Beverly Hills Cop, and about a billion of other movies)
No matter HOW strong a woman is, you will _NEVER_, ever see this scene genders reversed, just like for some reason, you will never see much diversity in what the main protagonist is in a JRPG - it's always a spiky-haired teen male simp with a sword and tolerance for female nagging and possibly some kind of stupid pet that orders him around as well.
I TRULY wish there was diversity in this world, but when it comes to these kind of things, there never is. Women are always shown as strong, without letting their brains splatter like men's brains are, without getting fists to the face - they are always slapped, usually with a backhand, too - and so on.
Gender is just a social construction, but men are not allowed to buy or wear colorful clothes or dresses, although women can wear -anything- they want, including bright, pink pants.
Men are not supposed to complain or talk about problems, because that's seen as 'weak, sissy, non-masculine', but women are allowed to do, be and say anything they want.
If we truly want equality, if we truly appreciate diversity, then couldn't we learn to write women characters are just 'regular dudes' that take punches in the face? Can't we let the protagonist in a JRPG be a female, a unicorn, a friggin' dolphin or unspecified, fluctuating energy cloud? Does it always have to be a spiky-haired (often red-haired, too) male teen with a sword? An OLD man would be a welcome change. Heck, I'd rather play a damn living BRICK than another spiky-haired teen male with a sword!
Diversity doesn't come from making 'period art' or dressing up as a fagina.