Why don't female protagonists often get to date?

Even though our male heroes seem to be able to date whoever they want, our heroines don’t appear to deserve the same happiness, no matter their sexuality. It’s not that these women are written as canonically asexual or aromantic, either—instead, they are presented as characters who would date if it were possible for them, but choose not to because a relationship would somehow demean them, or cannot date because of external forces... I think the bigger problem is that we just don’t have an example of a heroine in a relationship that’s actually healthy, period.

Are the two teenage girls who star in Life Is Strange falling in love? Or are they just two teens sharing a chaste flirtation that will never go anywhere? There have only been three episodes of this game so far, and although I’ve been rooting for these two, I can’t tell yet whether their relationship will ever go beyond queer-baiting.

Queer-baiting refers to how mainstream media creators might include a homosocial relationship that never goes beyond flirtation and heavy implication. This is an attempt to impress progressive audiences without alienating homophobic people. Playing it safe in this fashion doesn’t really work, though, because it frustrates the heck out of people who crave true representation and are expected to settle for subtext.