where does "biological reality" end and "social reality" begin? Is it not more of a consensus humans telling each other that "females are better in socializing than males" or is it indeed real? Where does biology and sociology merge together? Aren't we humans just an organism of the planet earth with a certain sense of consciousness?
I did skip your questions on purpose to not let myself be influenced and give you my purely subjective answer on what I think of the "Rey" character in Star wars.
Since Sigourney Weaver (or at least since I was old enough to watch Science Fiction) a new character emerged in the movie: the female warrior. I assume before "Alien" that was not often the case but I also can be wrong. I think that the fantasy and science fiction genre (and also action movies) rose in using female warrior characters in their movies.
Sometimes I thought while watching: This is actually a guy in a female body. I do see no particular female qualities other than the typical ones (like being able to cry, talk a little more and so on). Though the Alien character (S. Weaver) was in no way a male role in a womans body. On the contrary, I would say.
When I compare "Rey" with the female character in "The fifth Element"
I must say that Mila Jovovic was way better in her acting and less stereotype-ish.
I saw Star Wars shortly after Christmas but nothing in particular sticks to my memory other than her looks (really cool outfits, though) and that she was able to fight Ren. But maybe I got distracted from all the explosions and action that I have to watch it again to see the more subtle things.
The new Star Trek episodes (Discovery) on Netflix also use many female characters and there it is the same: the leading figures are soldiers/warriors for the most part. So I would say, what the characters need as a counterpart is not male but fight, war, and adrenalin producing surroundings :) Here I
was sneaking into your questions.
I am in no way able to answer your questions because this must come in my case out of the context of a story. The whole organism of a fiction I must feel come alive and then maybe I would have the idea what makes a female, female.
Nevertheless the questions do arouse my brain and are indeed very interesting and inspiring. I think one should print them and place em next to the screen while writing a story.
P.S. Weaver and Jovovic are in the mentioned movies female but I cannot say, why :)