Fans of “Wonder Woman” expressed outrage this week after “Titanic” and “Avatar” director James Cameron called their cinematic super-heroine “an objectified icon.”

After all, the blockbuster movie starring Gal Gadot just became the top-grossing domestic superhero-origin film of all time, with $404 million in box office receipts. Does that not justify a bit of “self-congratulatory back-patting,” as Cameron dubbed it?

“I believe women can and should be everything just like male lead characters should be,” tweeted “Wonder Woman” director Patty Jenkins, in response to Cameron’s comments. “There is no right and wrong kind of powerful woman. And the massive female audience who made the film a hit … can surely choose and judge their own icons of progress.”

For many movie buffs, including the ones who helped “Wonder Woman” smash the box-office glass ceiling, the choices have never been more plentiful.

Women starred as the lead character in 29 percent of the top-100 films of 2016, up 7 percent from 2015, due to sci-fi titles such as the rebooted “Ghostbusters” and the critically acclaimed “Arrival,” according to The Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film.

But the progress — which has lately included lead roles in male-dominated franchises such as “Mad Max” and the multibillion-dollar “Star Wars” saga — feels like wheel-spinning to some, particularly as internet-fueled protests about female leads in movies, TV shows and video games have soured the victories of the past few years.

“It’s forced and over-the-top and worth the eye-roll many of us fans are giving it,” Jon Caldara, president of the Denver-based libertarian think tank the Independence Institute, wrote in The Denver Post last week in response to news that the latest incarnation of Doctor Who will be, for the first time ever, a woman.

“Like so much lately, they’re pushing transsexual acceptance so hard it’s backfiring. … Do even established, beloved fictional characters in far-flung galaxies need to be manipulated to fight the PC culture wars?” he wrote.

Caldara is echoing the sentiments of plenty of angry internet commenters, particularly the men’s-rights activists and others who were upset by this summer’s women-only “Wonder Woman” screenings at the Alamo Drafthouse theaters in Denver, New York City and Austin, Texas. (The Drafthouse apologized for the screenings this month and admitted the advertising for them was in violation of anti-discrimination laws.)

However, the vicious tug-of-war over female characters frequently puts fans of female-driven comics, sci-fi, fantasy and other pop-culture in a tough position, said Sara Wilson, producer of the Nerd Nite Denver show.

“What we have now are bread crumbs, and the people who are tired of hearing about (the debate) are like, ‘There you go, there’s your bread crumbs,’ ” Wilson said. “But when we’re given them, all we can say is, ‘More, please.’ We just can’t have a win.”

As an organizer at the annual DINK Comic & Art Expo in Denver, and a proudly feminist editor who works with screenwriters, authors and comic book writers, Wilson has seen a diverse range of female characters over the years. She often proposes a thought exercise for her writers: Swap a male character for a female character and see what kind of difference it makes in the story — if any.

“Without fail it always works,” Wilson said of the process, which forces writers to think more deeply about how gender informs their characters. “It’s worth making a point of doing that, but not necessarily in the reader’s face. … One approach is ‘inception-ing’ the populace without them realizing it, and then eventually there’s a new normal.”

At the moment, “normal” means male domination in the most visible parts of the entertainment industry. The 10 highest-paid actors, for example, last year earned nearly $500 million, about three times the $172.5 million combined total of the 10 top-earning women, according to Forbes.

A list of starring roles for women in sci-fi, fantasy and action blockbusters of the past few decades remains short, in large part because men still control most major studios, run shows and write the scripts, according to studies by the Geena Davis Institute for Gender in Media.

Film and TV heroines such as Lt. Ripley (“Alien”), Sarah Connor (“Terminator 2: Judgment Day”), Buffy the Vampire Slayer or even Disney’s Mulan stick out because they are exceptions to the rule, while even the laziest of male characters (and actors, and writers) get heaped with praise.

“I won’t name names, but there are a number of male comedians who made a lot of movies in the ’90s who can still get movies made who really shouldn’t,” said Jenny Bicks, a former writer and executive producer for “Sex and the City,” “What a Girl Wants” and “Men in Trees.” “If producers are smart, they’ll change because there’s money to be made from a female audience that isn’t showing up for these movies.”

For Bicks, who now works as producer and showrunner on HBO’s “Divorce,” the imbalance is painful not because society is missing some imaginary mark of fairness, but because non-stereotypical characters make for more engaging, nuanced and ultimately stronger storytelling.

“There are certain experiences that will only be had by a man or by a woman, so in that way I don’t think we can become totally gender-blind,” Bicks said. ” ‘Sex and the City’ would not have worked for four guys. At the same time, there’s no excuse for remaking the same goofy man-child shows when you could change it up and experiment.”

The multibillion-dollar video game industry has also lately seized upon this, scoring hits with big-budget titles starring nonstereotypical female characters, including Horizon: Zero Dawn and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy.

These new characters are not simply abused women out for revenge (as entertaining as Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill” series might be), hyper-sexualized bombshells lifted from comic-book panels (such as “Atomic Blonde”) or plucky princesses who find their grit by the third act (as Disney’s longtime animated-feature template dictates).

“I’m not against hot ladies running around in skimpy outfits, but it bothers me when they dumb their personalities down,” said Suzanne Slade, a teacher and musician who fronts, among others, the “Game of Thrones” tribute band Daenerys and the Targaryens.

“I kind of checked out of ‘Wonder Woman’ when they took her dress shopping,” she said. “I was like, ‘What does this have to do with being a warrior?’ It seemed like they felt they needed to throw in something for the ladies. But all the women I know wanted to see her kick some butt.”

Working for more a balanced, representative staff on movies and TV shows is one way of moving the circular conversation forward, female creatives said. Another is realizing how early these foundations are laid, given that people begin forming ideas about gender roles as children.

“In children’s entertainment we are extremely careful about how we represent gender and race, and try very hard to make sure that the numbers are even,” said Liz Hara, a writer on “Sesame Street” who has written for PBS Kids shows such as “Odd Squad” and “Nature Cat.” “I’m guilty of (a bias toward male characters) in my own work because it’s just the culture we were steeped in. Bit by bit it’s getting better, and I’m hopeful for the future. But a lot of us really do have to self-monitor, or else it’s never going to change.”