I agree that Dorothy isn't normative for her time (as far as I know), but she is pretty normative for ours. I'd love for there to be more representations of women and female characters who are awesome without being this specific trope. It's a nice one, for sure, and I love some of the characters who fit it (Starbuck, Buffy, Lorelai Gilmore - though they all got way more characterization, of course). But the notion behind the trope, that strong equals feminist, is wrong and really harmful, and mostly, I just really want more sorts of awesome women and trans* people on TV, who have seriously developed characters.

As for being fem - I wouldn't peg her as a femme, I'm just saying that according to what's normative today, she's pretty much on the nose, with an added dash of fashionable retro. Nothing wrong with that, I like her, but it would be seriously awesome to get, ever, representations of other gender expressions. My problem is not with her, but with the people who made her up.

Still, the way you describe her makes me like her way better. I knew this would happen, just like with Jess, fandom makes characters more awesome :)

I also read a lot into Dorothy's throwaway that Ozma is "an ass". In the books, Ozma is the rightful Fairy Queen of Oz. She is an eternal girl (who genderswitched from being a boy for a long time). I definitely think that Dorothy contrasts herself as a woman of action to Ozma (who seems to be content to let freedom fighters take care of trouble in her kingdom) and to the Men of Letters (who didn't use to admit women in Dorothy's dad's day, not that she would have wanted to join.)

Ooh, I love that! :D
Also - genderswitched, you say? I'd love to hear more about that1