Geekquality Reading Group discussion

Okay so I've read TGWTDT and many other books where the female protagonist is a total badass, and while I appreciate a girl with a mean right hook, I have to say, I'm annoyed that (especially in Dragon Tattoo) is seems like most females who are kickass have a reason to be. They are all broken in some way. Coming from either a broken home, having been beaten or raped or in some other kind of horrific way.

Why must badass women only be badass after first being broken down? Why can't there be a woman who is truly badass just....because she is?

Can anyone suggest a book with a badass female that doesn't have some sort of tragic backstory giving her a reason to be so strong?

You know I just read Poison Study (pretty fluffy, as far as writer's voice, but interesting premise) and it's the same thing. And you're onto it, toughness seems to come a lot of times from a place of great tragedy. I think there's different degrees, like Katniss being resilient in The Hunger Games because she needs it to survive. But now I'm going to think for a while about tough as nails heroines and what their motivation is. Can a character be realistically very resilient and tough if they didn't face some sort of "conditioning" adversity at some point?