Diablo Cody is like a Rorschach test for feminists.  Some women love her for being brilliant, courageous, subversive, and vocal; some women hate her for being trendy, scandalous, irritating, and loud.  Make of her what you will, I have a special place in my heart for any woman willing to rock animal prints as frequently as Ms. Cody does.

1. She uses the F-word fearlessly.

“My feminist hat is permanently welded to my head—I definitely can’t take it off! It’s so important for me to write things from the female perspective and in service of women and in the right roles for women. That’s usually what I’m thinking going into it. Obviously, the story goes first. But then my next priority is how am I going to sneak my subversive feminist message into this?”

2. She has priorities.

“I want to write roles that service women. I want to tell stories from a female perspective. I want to create good parts for actresses where they’re not just accessories to men…”

3. She calls ‘em like she sees ‘em.

“The attitude toward women in this industry is nauseating. There are all sorts of porcine executives who are uncomfortable with a woman doing anything subversive. They want the movie about the beautiful girl who trips and falls, the adorable klutz.”

4. She has a purpose.

“I think representation is obviously the first step to equality, so if women aren’t being represented in a diverse way in movies, they’re going to remain marginalized.”

5. She’s tough.

“Believe me, I’m a really sensitive, self-conscious person. It became apparent to me so quickly into my career that people weren’t all going to like me and, in fact, some people were going to hate me! It was a surprise, because no one thinks of themselves as unlikeable. I thought, Well, if this is going to be, I’m going to have to armor up!”

6. Like I said, she calls ‘em like she sees ‘em.

“It definitely has to do with sexism. I’m sorry, I believe that it does. A female writer is not allowed to be a maverick. You can write a cute romantic comedy, even run a studio, but God forbid you have an outsized personality, or they are going to bag on you.”

7. She knows women are smart, and she doesn’t downplay them for popularity.

“I got called out in a review, for saying that [a] particular line was unrealistic, because there’s no way the teenage daughter would be that articulate. And I thought to myself, ‘YAWN! Where have I heard that criticism before?’ Okay, we get it: some people think my teenage characters are too well-spoken and sassy. There’s no changing their minds.”

8. She thinks we need to be exposed to body types other than wafer-thin models and actresses.

“…I have no shame about nudity and I feel like nudity is confrontational in a way.  Maybe the world needs to see a size-10 woman naked.  Maybe they need to see my cellulite.  I kind of feel that I would love to put that out there.”

9. She doesn’t buy into the Hollywood spending and glitz.

“Any time I do a red carpet, I feel vaguely confrontational.  I feel like, ‘All right, now somebody’s going to come onto the carpet who doesn’t have a stylist, who did her own hair and makeup, who’s wearing a $25 dress from H&M.  I have cellulite.  I have big hips and big thighs.  And you have to look at me.’  I feel like people have to pay attention to someone who would typically be invisible.”

10.  She’s sick of feminist infighting.

“When I see the way women behave on the Internet, I have an issue.  Even on so-called feminist Web sites, it feels like an excuse for a bunch of women to get together and say that [So-and-So] looks haggard, or that she’s a slut, or that she’s aging poorly… I actually feel that kind of hatred back and forth, whether it’s feminists calling women whores or the other way around.  I am speaking as a radical feminist: feminists can be incredibly hard on other women.  They were the first people clutching their pearls when I came onto the horizon.  They were the first people to disapprove of me.”

From here, here, here,  here, here, and here.  So what’s your verdict?