From a Pulitzer Prize-finalist for journalism, Girl on Girl is the ultimate book to understanding the toxic legacy of popular culture on feminism today - and what we can do to fight back.
'A captivating must-read for anyone who wants to understand how and why misogyny is as powerful a force as ever' KATE MANNE, author of Down Girl
Cosmetic surgeries at an all-time high, Ozempic is bringing back 'heroin chic' and TikTok trad-wives are on the rise - after four waves of feminism, what went wrong?In this blazing, razor-sharp takedown of popular culture in the twenty-first century, Girl on Girl turns 90s and 00s nostalgia on its head, and shows how the media of that era repackaged the feminist movement as a containable, commodifiable (and hugely successful) product: 'Girl Power'. From the Spice Girls to the Kardashians, to #GirlBoss and OnlyFans, Pulitzer Prize-finalist Sophie Gilbert illustrates how the cultural forces of the last few decades have systematically shaped - and warped - women's relationships with themselves and other women.Relatable, wide-ranging and covering TV, film, music, journalism and the internet, Girl on Girl asks how did we get here, and what lies ahead.Landmark feminist non-fiction Stylist
A sharp, insightful analysis of how media and pop culture have shaped how women view themselves and each other Marie Claire
Gilbert unmasks the collective regression that continues to influence our views on misogyny, feminism and womanhood today Harper's Bazaar
Gilbert is one of my favorite writers and thinkers, particularly on the subjects of gender and womanhood-and her debut book, which dissects three decades of pop culture through a feminist lens, is sure to be one of the standouts of the year The Millions
A carefully buttressed and sharply written analysis that takes into account a dizzying number of cultural products and characters . . . Truly, Gilbert deserves a medal - not only for her observations and conclusions, but for navigating the sludge she had to wade through to get there. Essential cultural criticism -- Starred review Kirkus
With panache, wit, and brilliance, Sophie Gilbert's GIRL ON GIRL offers compelling analyses of how mass culture has diluted and tainted feminism, even managing to turn women against each other and ourselves. A captivating must-read for anyone who wants to understand how and why misogyny is as powerful a force as ever -- Kate Manne, author of Down Girl
A riveting, incisive, rousing exploration of millennial culture that reveals the cyclical pattern of political movements, the insidious nature of backlash, and the importance of understanding how we got here, so that we can move forward. Sophie Gilbert is one of our most important cultural critics and I'll read everything she ever writes -- Melissa Febos, author of Body Work and Girlhood
In exploring the years that saw millennial feminism curdle into a wan tool of capitalism (lean in, girlboss!), the book is somehow very entertaining and even energizing, transforming a dismal history into something like a rallying cry Boston Globe
Triumphant . . . a tour de force of cultural criticism Publishers Weekly
A deep dive into pop culture's pernicious obsession with female youth. An incisive spotlight that lays bare the trap of postfeminism. A fascinating, compelling, and maddening look at the guise of female sexuality in the new millennium-how it became a dominant yet misperceived source of power for women and, of course, how it was and continues to be used against us -- Anna Marie Tendler, New York Times bestselling author of Men Have Called Her Crazy
Reading Girl on Girl feels like revisiting your memories with your brilliant protective older sister making sense of them for you. Her cultural criticism is as coolly sophisticated as it is deeply personal, making you feel like she's reading your mind. It's alarming to see so clearly how cruel the aughts were to young women. But the great payoff is, finally, self awareness -- Hanna Rosin, author of The End of Men
Girl on Girl's greatest gift is its insistence on treating some of culture's longest-standing punchlines-porn girls, reality stars, gossipmongers, self-mythologizers-with the seriousness they deserve, interrogating them both as the products of their circumstances and as a material basis for the new world in which we live. The result is dizzying, engrossing, sometimes nauseating; an ambitious modern history of public-facing womanhood that manages to make the senselessness and horror of our current moment feel eminently comprehensible -- Rayne Fisher-Quann, writer of the blog Internet Princess
Sophie Gilbert is a staff writer at the Atlantic, where she writes about television, books, and popular culture. She was a finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Criticism and has previously written for the New York Times, Washington Post, the New Republic, and the Brooklyn Rail. She lives in London.
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