Every fem-centered xianxia or wuxia I've enjoyed in my cdrama obsession has emphasized that the greatest enemy is the patriarchy and authority gone wrong, but not a single one has ever treated a powerful or skilled woman character as an anomaly that had to be explained

Like legitimately most heroines in the genre are introduced as incredibly lazy, dumb, or naive as an excuse for being unskilled, versus a default assumption that they're incapable of it because of their gender

I'm just thinking how when I first watched Nirvana in Fire this intro to Princess Nihuang made me wary she would be some kind of idealized badass but she’s vulnerable, loving, and fully realized--and surrounded by equally important women and men who treat her with respect

Like not only does she get to be a pretty princess when she feels like it but the other women in the story operating within the same historical fantasy context are given narrative importance and equality. Their exceptionalism is in how they solve problems and treat others

What I'm saying it that it's not difficult to write stories where women are treated as equals--even in settings/scenarios where their options are limited or they suffer exploitation--if sexism isn't just the default mode, when it's a bug rather than a feature