The conclusion we’ve come to will surprise you, and not in a good way.

Whenever you stumble upon a Chicago Fire debate online, there’s a very high likelihood it has to do with the show’s female characters. For the most part, it’s about how the writers can’t create compelling and realistic female leads that won’t come off as annoying, entitled, and frustrating, and most fans seem to share this opinion.

But as usual, there’s a huge “but” involved that most Chicago Fire fans ignore.

Chicago Fire Fans Hate Its Female Characters

Indeed, fans of our favorite firefighting TV show love to discuss the flaws and shortcomings of its female leads. They’re getting called all kinds of things, and the blame is largely put on the writers. Sure enough, it’s hard for male writers to create compelling female characters due to their treating them as otherworldly beings, but…

That’s not the problem.

We can all agree that Stella Kidd is the most prominent female lead on Chicago Fire, especially after Sylvie Brett’s leave, right? Stella is an OG, a great professional, and an absolute killer when it comes to her career climb. Yet, when we typed “Hate Stella” into the search of Chicago Fire’s biggest subreddit, we found over 250 posts talking about how annoying or intolerable this beloved character was.

Chicago Fire Writers Are Not the Problem

Once again: we’re not justifying the show’s writers in general. There are quite a few things wrong, from turning a brilliant firefighting series into a soap opera set in a firehouse to recycling the same storylines four times and hoping no one will notice — but “horrible female character writing” is not one of their sins.

The one thing that’s very wrong with Chicago Fire’s female characters is… Fans.

Chicago Fire fans don’t give its female leads a break, and every tiny thing they don’t do perfectly, they get insulted for. Male characters are somehow allowed and even expected to be flawed: Severide’s sleeping with anyone anywhere, using drugs on the shift, and working injured is great, but Boden forbid Chilly does that!

Casey can give his crew hell when he’s not in the mood; Cruz can sacrifice a civilian for his brother on a call; Severide can vanish into thin air with no explanation; but it’s Stella who’ll get dozens and hundreds of hate posts for breathing wrongly.

It’s not bad writing that female leads have flaws. It’s life-like writing. Everyone has flaws, and female characters don’t need to be perfect. Go touch grass or something.