I'm certainly very interested in seeing all sorts of different women in stories. That's one of the reasons I love the novels of Margaret Laurence. All of her protagonists are female and both strong and weak in their own way. She also covers some very "stereotypical" types, like the housewife and the spinster, and gives them an honest, sympathetic portrayal, while not shying away from the ugly parts. Basically, she rocks.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, since I'll be showing a certain well-known womanly type in my chapter about Jaxy Rai (which I'm working on now).

Also, I'm not really here to defend Ophelia (which is why I didn't bring her up on my own, though I appreciate your defense of her). People are more than welcome to dislike her, and I can certainly see why people would dislike her. "Depressive" and "fearful/worrisome" are not traits that people are generally drawn to, and I wanted to stay true to her Maxis backstory and also explore the depression side of things (for a number of reasons, it's important to me that she not bounce back and "get over it" so easily). Paired with the fact that her positive traits are decidedly feminine and passive (calm, kind, and nurturing come to mind), then it makes sense that she isn't going to appeal to everyone.

That said, I do think she's a pretty good example of what we're talking about.

One more point: Circe will most certainly not crack because she has "too much" power. I am sure she would laugh at the concept of ever having too much power or money. If she has a downfall, it won't be that.