17 Top Girlbosses (and Why They Are Right to be Awful People)

There’s a new trend out there, and it’s the take-no-shit, strong-ass girlboss. “Gatekeep, Gaslight, Girlboss” is their house motto. Bitchy, emotional and in control, girlbosses are either your favorite thing ever, or the most annoying, Mary Sue-but-evil, confusing, and awful trope to exist. But here’s a secret – girlboss is just an agonizingly gendered term for a Byronic hero. 

Moody? Check. Haunted by darkness in their past? Check. Willing to do morally indecent things to accomplish their oft heroic goals? Check.

Midsommar, Cruella, Maleficent – it’s the time of the girlboss. No more boring movies about depressed, dark-eyed, loner white boys -- that gives too much of a school shooter vibe. Now it’s time for (still mostly white) depressed, dark-eyed girls who rule the roost. From schools to multinational corporations, girlbosses rule it all. 

Who runs the world? Mostly the sociopathic, born rich, and formerly powerful in one way before moving to power in one way, like a book seller who becomes an astronaut, or a car designer who becomes an astronaut, or a phone service man who becomes an astronaut. But in fiction at least, some of those sociopathic rich astronauts… are girls. 

Here are some of the worst things that girlbosses have done, and the reasons they were basically justified in doing it. (Bonus points if they’re very hot and/or goth; that counts as a reason you’re allowed to do mostly morally objectionable things.)