Is it that hard to write about female artists?

Maura's piece in the Village Voice  is required reading for anyone writing about music these days. Although its intended target is primarily male bloggers and critics, many of whom seem baffled by women performers or songwriters (sorry to paint with such broad brushstrokes, but you guys fail at this quite a bit), I'm a little chagrined that I do some of these things, too. Particularly this one:

3. Are you comparing the artist you're writing about to other female artists only? If so, why? 

The T profile of Lana Del Rey brings up the following artists, all of whom get, for varying reasons, thrown under the bus: Rihanna; Lady Gaga; Adele; Amy Winehouse; Ke$ha; Miley Cyrus; Nicki Minaj. Are there stylistic qualities that these singers share? Well, Brown tries to compare Del Rey's huffy "National Anthem" to Cyrus's sunny "Party In The USA":

Granted, in the example she used, those comparisons are way off to begin with: Lana Del Rey to Gaga to Adele to Miley? Oy. That's just bad critic shorthand (and shows that the writer in question really doesn't listen to that many artists. If you're going to to this, cast a wider net.) But women tend to sound like other women, so yeah, sometimes a reference just jumps out whether it's accurate or not.