Also, for some bizarre reason, I feel like Ayn Rand belongs there too. Her philosophy was absolutely abhorrent, but if we’re going to talk about badassery, the fact that she developed an entire philosophy (which she wrote two GIGANTIC novels based on), PLUS created her own entourage, PLUS was totally insane pretty much qualifies her for posthumous membership in the badass club of badass badasses.

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Unless it refers to a female who’s under the age of 16,I’ve always found the term “girl” demeaning, insubstantial, disrespectful and in so many other ways not-to-be-taken-seriously. In fact the very opposite of all the writers mentioned above.

Yes, “women” is used in the body of the article, but why can’t it be in the title: Who Runs the Literary World? These Women!

Any thoughts?

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I’d also include Carson McCullers on my list. From what I remember, there are queer feelings and difficult-to-categorize relationships in all her novel(la)s and in her short story collection “The Ballad of the Sad Café.” Her writing’s brilliant.

Dunno if either of these writers have identified themselves as being a particular sexual orientation, but I have my suspicions. Anyway, it’s more important to me that writers handle queer issues in an empathetic and nuanced way. Take Colette – the Claudine books were written with the collaboration of her husband, or under his direction (no one really knows, I don’t think). It can be interesting sometimes to speculate about “authenticity” etc, but at the end of the day the best “queer books” are very well written, interesting, and believable. For me it doesn’t matter how the author identifies, if I feel a strong connection with its representations of women’s relationships.

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Also, thanks for drawing my attention to this list Rachel- it was really interesting. It’s so hard to pick a selection of female literary badasses; they’re are just so many to choose from

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