A woman utilizing "feminine" skills

It sounds like the complainer has a chip on his/her shoulder.

Personally, I like female characters to have qualities that are feminine. I would argue that making a female hero "masculine" is more of a slap in the face to women than having her know how to sew. Why must heroines be manly to be heroic?

Extend this complaint to all fantasy characters. How is it possible that a heroine grows up in a world where little girls are taught to sew and, even as a child, she wore pants instead of dresses and said, "I'm not into that sissy stuff, mom. Dad owns you and you're an insult to your gender for giving birth to me, you—you woman!"

In your story, she's a cosplayer! She sews awesomely! So no, a 21st century woman doing this is not a bad thing. The bad thing is when people try to tie everything to their rigid point of view: in this case, a female character displays a feminine quality; therefore, the woman who wrote her is anti-feminism. Absurd!

 

I went to church after writing my earlier comment. I ran a session with kids and teens, and "strength" was today's theme. I had the kids each come up with a display of strength. It didn't have to be physical, but of the physical moves, only girls came up with moves that few could imitate.

- Hold leg straight up overhead. No boy could do it.
- The splits. No boy dared to try.
- A backflip. She was the only one who could.

These girls style their hair, paint their nails, and wear pink and wear dresses when they want to. They are girly, and they out-awesomed the boys.

 

In an RPG, no. In real life, you need strong legs to do a back flip. Male and female gymnasts are quite muscular, and some of that does transfer to the kind of muscle you can use in the weight room. Male gymnasts tend to do the bars and other feats that make use of upper body strength.

And that's kind of my point. The girls who wow'd the boys did what the boys couldn't do. It's symbolic of what I want from a heroine: to solve a problem her way, even if her way is different from a man's.

 

That's not to say a male hero can't sew or a female hero can't slug it out. I just don't see why anyone would get riled up over a character doing something naturally that is considered typical of that character's gender. If the person complaining thinks men and women all behave the same, then sewing shouldn't be a problem. Somebody has to sew, so the complainer should just assume men also sew.