I knew that about JK Rowling. DC Fontana had similar challenges when writing for Star Trek.

It greatly depresses me that in the publishing industry this is still something with which women have to grapple. Some of the best fantasy, science fiction, and horror comes from women - in both film and literature (I wrote this piece recently on the current renaissance of female horror directors, for instance).

I would hardly call myself a paragon of feminist activism (indeed, I generally find activists of all varieties insufferable, regardless of whether I sympathise with their cause), but because I care about good storytelling, I get greatly pissed off by sexism in the publishing, film, and television industries. Especially when it is driven by sexist ideas of what men and women stereotypically like to read/watch.

Obviously I can only speak for myself, but I read all kinds of novels with female protagonists. For me the whole point of a story is to put yourself in someone else's shoes - male, female, straight, gay, black, white, whatever. I find myself particularly drawn to imperiled heroines in gothic tales, hence the majority of my own published novels.

As for what you say about streaming, you could have a point, although that greatly depresses me as a cineaste (I'm a hardcore, old-school cinema enthusiast and evangelist for the big screen experience). Again, I can only speak from my own experience, but out of my wife and myself, I'm much more likely to want to watch romantic comedies or romances in general, whereas she rather rolls her eyes at that sort of thing (though can appreciate the good ones - she enjoys what she calls the "real" romantic comedies from the 1930s/40s like Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday, It Happened One Night, etc). Conversely, my wife is obsessed with science fiction, fantasy, action thrillers, etc- more than I am, I'd say.