What does being female mean in Graceling?  Katsa is treated as kind of an outcast her who life, first because she is Graced and has two different color eyes and then at the age of eight, when life for a girl can start to get a little confusing, she kills her cousin with one hit because he was getting too friendly and she becomes even more of an outcast.  From that point on the only people that really want to have anything to do with her are a small group of men and one woman.  If it wasn’t for Helda she would not even known what to expect when she got her first period.  But she also thinks she should like to have her hair done up really pretty and she should get excited about wearing a beautiful dress but does that make Katsa less of a woman?  Just because she prefers to fight, ride fast, and wears pants does that mean she is not really a normal woman?  I think some of Katsa’s awkwardness stems from being young and not fully comfortable in her own skin, she has not really found herself yet but if she continues to keep her short hair, train young girls to fight and protect themselves, and never wants to marry and have children does that make her less female?  I think Po did wonders for her self esteem and self worth.  He loves her for who she is not what he expects her to be.  That is what love should be.  That is probably why she fell in love with him.