All the Girls Wanna Be Like Ayn

Via Arts & Letters Daily, a long exegesis by Amy Benfer on what Ayn Rand means to girls.

It's easy enough to explain Rand's appeal to those who adore capitalism, abhor government intervention, and prize individual liberty above all. But the particularly fascinating thing about Rand is that many young women, like Gottlieb, revere the book as teenagers and later come to loathe – or at least laugh at – the novels as adults. In the 2003 movie Lost In Translation, Charlotte, played by Scarlett Johansson, says that every girl goes through a "horse phase" and a "photography phase, where, you know, you take dumb pictures of your feet." For a certain kind of American girl, the "Ayn Rand phase" is another rite of passage.

It's more personal essay than reportage, but it's a good read.