Gender Norms and NPCs

This is a fantastic article from TV Tropes on the different media expectations, tropes, and reasoning behind certain gender norms on television and in other forms of media. There's no real way for me to summarise all the brilliant details here but I do encourage you to take a look. It'll help you understand why your NPCs don't seem feminine or masculine enough to people and what the perspectives behind the issues are. It's also just, well, an interesting read.