You *can* be heavy or rounded and healthily-toned. I like watching ballroom dancing & once saw this dancer (years ago) named Kimberly Mitchell; by comparison to the other women, she was chunky, but damn can she dance. She wore the same flashy, skimpy dresses they did & I remember my sister calling my mom & me to come back, commercial's over-Kimberly's on! And we rushed back to watch her again, fascinated to see this very curvy and completely unselfconscious bigger woman moving so gracefully.
That's kind of funny, actually. The second I posted this entry, my wife started asking me for a list of hot women for her picspam, and one of the first to come up was Laila Ali. She and her sister (a plus sized patternmaker) are absolutely gorgeous, strong, amazing to watch on the dancefloor.

It's like...they have to out-Dean him to be worthy or something, like a cariacature.
That's a really good point. A female character can't stand on her own without being compared to Dean, who is a very masculine character; there are other strengths than male strengths! I kind of think of Arwen and Eowyn at that point: Eowyn is constantly compared to male warriors, but Arwen found a very female, very DIFFERENT kind of strength. Both are valid and amazing, but the Eowyn kind of strength comes with a price of constant comparison. It's hard as hell to portray the Arwen strength, grace and compassion and wisdom, without being completely overshadowed or sissified.

I would LOVE to see Dean meet Carmen for real.