I like both type of story. Dealing With Dragons is my most recent sanity-read, and I've always loved how Cimorene just walks out of the conventional fairy tale life. I also just recently got reminded of how much I loved The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. And by-the-bye, did you know that hundreds of women pretended to be men and fought as soldiers on both sides of the Civil War? At the same time, I love love love Little Women, and all the subtle negotiations of independent womenhood (both conventional and non) in it. I also love how Lois McMaster Bujold explores the usually-ignored female power structures in a patriarchal society on Barrayar.

What really annoys me is when a Calamity Jane gets Doris Day-ed.