I thought Rowling was Rowling for boys. I was not a huge fan of her female characters. They'd be cute and fun and smart and then all of a sudden they'd need rescuing.

I'm rather sick of the medieval fantasy = medieval social roles thing, myself. It's not Earth, it's a place that grew up with different religions and customs, so who's to say that they would end up with the same gender roles, sexism, homophobia, etc. that we have?