When people who were born in, say, the fifties say that, I can kind of see it, because there was a dip in awesome female character production in midcentury. (Although there were still Lucy & Jill in Narnia and Eowyn in LotR so...maybe not so much?)

But when people our age say it, I tend to assume the problem is them: in my experience there's a high correlation between statements like that and having Issues about female characters.

In a sense it's unfair to blame people for picking up this cultural baggage when they were but lasses...but at the same time, there are some kinds of baggage I just don't want to deal with, so it's useful to know the warning signs.