He actually does better than most by having proto-Granny be pretty gender essentialist and also still pretty badass in her mastery of traditional female stuff - he has already figured out that you don't have to put down what's there in order to complain about what isn't, which is a step that a lot of people, especially in the eighties, found hard to grasp.

I am struggling to parse this sentence, possibly because it's too early in the morning. Help pls? 'Cause I was going to complain about the gender essentialism, but now I'm not sure if you've already complained about it or not. IT'S TOO EARLY.