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I think the requirements for being an interesting and beloved protagonist are actually narrower than those for being respected and admired, and more uniquely at odds with the typical (or stereotypical?) disposition of females of the human species than the latter. For example, I know plenty of female scientists in my field who I respect a great deal for their academic contributions (as teachers, discoverers and systematizers), but a fictional account of their life would be soul-crushingly boring, because they did not primarily get where they are by fighting and winning a well-delineated conflict "fair and square" by force of will and effort. In fact there are, and have always been, beloved female protagonists, whose stories do not force us to suspend our understanding of the human condition: think Joan of Arc, Erin Brockovich or Madoka (the magical girl). I think these are all distinguished by their struggle having a prominent moral dimension, of the kind that I wouldn't go so far as to call unpopular nowadays but certainly outnumbered by easier-to-write "protagonist wants resource, antagonist wants the same resource, only one of them can have it" stories.
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