As a kind of related aside:

Is the term “heroine” part of the problem? Because it seems to carry a lot of baggage with it, as in: “the character that the hero saves at the end.” And in a book where there’s both a hero and a heroine, and usually the hero is named first (no one says “heroine and hero”) does that demand the qualifier to assure the reader that “although the hero is first, the heroine is strong and stands up as a character, too?”

Of course, ‘male lead’ and ‘female lead’ just don’t have the same ring. Sigh.