"When looking for a life partner, my advice to women is date all of them: the bad boys, the cool boys, the commitment-phobic boys, the crazy boys. But do not marry them. The things that make the bad boys sexy do not make them good husbands. When it comes time to settle down, find someone who wants an equal partner. Someone who thinks women should be smart, opinionated and ambitious. Someone who values fairness and expects or, even better, wants to do his share in the home. These men exist and, trust me, over time, nothing is sexier.” ― Sheryl Sandberg, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead

This is a bestseller book and it echoes what TRP states. I did initially dismiss this as maybe her preference, but when you look at this AskWomen thread:- https://www.reddit.com/r/AskWomen/comments/27uqlt/what_do_you_ladies_think_of_ceo_sheryl_sandbergs/, a decent number of them confirm that it is something they don't take offense to.

Also this comment kinda graps my qalms with this quote: she's not describing the arc of life or telling women not to commit to bad boys. She's actively encouraging women to get with the bad boys: "When looking for a life partner, my advice to women is date all of them: the bad boys, the cool boys, the commitment-phobic boys, the crazy boys." Meanwhile, all four versions are just different variations on the bad boy.

If she was merely describing the arc of life, she'd say, "if you want to date the bad boys, go ahead and do that, but you'll come around and (if you're smart) you'll realize that you should only marry the good ones". No, she encourages women to go out at get with the bad boys. The "arc of life" interpretation is wrong. If a girl came to Sheryl Sandberg and said, "I want to marry my high school sweetheart", I get the impression that Sheryl Sandberg would tell her to go hookup with some bad boys because that's what she says - "my advice to women is date all of them [bad boys before you get married]" .

I'm kind of getting tired of the constant "let's reinterpret what was said to make it palatable"

So what do I do? I know there are probably many women who aren't like this, but given the popularity of this advice, it's really saddening

Edit: Thanks so much for all of your well though out and kind responses. The discussion has confirmed some of my own shortcomings which I need to work on.