In the book Atlas Shrugged, Dagny Taggart has slept with all three of the male protagonists by the end of the book. What was Ayn Rand suggesting?

First it was Francisco d’Anconia, then Hank Rearden, and finally, John Galt.

Atlas Shrugged has been adopted by some libertarians, Tea Partiers, and others as a bible for them in their quest for smaller government. That is not what I am asking about.

Dagny, the female protagonist, at one point of another sleeps with each of the main male characters in the book. (In fact the one recurring character that she doesn’t sleep with Eddie Willers). By the end of the book, when the ‘elite’ have decided to go ‘back to the world’, Dagny is clearly with John Galt, but Francisco and Hank are all in the same room in the Colorado settlement, planning their moves.

What’s Ayn Rand suggesting here about women? I can see a couple of possibilities – do you have others?

- A woman needs at least three men to find contentment?

- Marriage is overrated; serial monogamy is successful?

- Lillian (Rearden’s wife) was just as powerful as Dagny in her own way – and to a degree Cheryl Taggart (Jim’s wife) finally grew a spine. And both of the latter (Lillian and Cheryl) were successful in their own ways – does that make them more powerful women than Dagny?

- Is it easier / more effective to do business what a person you have slept with?