FAQ: What's up with that damned mob of scribbling women?

It was Serious Literary Author Nathaniel Hawthorne who famously grumbled about "that damned mob of scribbling women," of course referring to the popular female sentimental fiction authors who were writing the biggest bestsellers of the day. The entire quote isn't much more flattering:

America is now wholly given over to a damned mob of scribbling women, and I should have no chance of success while the public is occuppied with their trash–and should be ashamed of myself if I did succeed.

Them's fightin' words!

I once read that his most famous novel, The Scarlett Letter, was subtitled "a romance" so that it might appeal to that  large and voracious audience of book buying women who enjoyed fiction featuring heroines up against the world, and often succeeding.  (If you've read it, you know it's anything but a romance!). Apparently he read it to his wife and it sent her to bed with a grievous headache, which meant he considered the book a success. Dear readers, I sincerely hope none of my books send you to bed with grieveous headaches!

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Poor Mr. Hawthorne is haunted my a line from a letter hundreds of years ago. Although, his novel is required school reading while the "trash" of that damned mob is now largely forgotten (I've read some of it, and it's different–epic, and good. A reading list will come soon). One thing I've noticed again and again in my research is that things really don't change and attitudes get passed down. It's comments like this that fueled my research on Dangerous Books For Girls. I'm not sure if that original damned mob embraced that description, but I'm a proud member!

Are you a proud member of that damned mob of scribbling women? 

Have you read The Scarlett Letter–what do you think?