Which also reminds me of another pet peeve: having the big strong menses saving the heroine too much.

I read that as menses-the-biological and was like, "Is that a trope? THROUGH THE POWER OF MENSTRUATION I SHALL WIN THIS!" I'm actually a little disappointed now.

(And agreed; I think its a fine line, and its hard to leave out the accidental power dynamic implied just by the act of one character saving another.)