Sophie Gilbert

Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves

Bodies, Literature, Choice

On Womanhood

Girl on Girl

The books under the Atlantic Editions imprint with Zando feature long-form journalism by Atlantic writers devoted to a single topic, drawing from contemporary articles or classic storytelling from the magazine’s rich archive. On Womanhood: Bodies, Literature, Choice gathers a selection of Pulitzer Prize finalist Sophie Gilbert’s essential and attentive essays on womanhood and popular culture. Unflinchingly positioning television and literature as capacious sites of feminist critique, Gilbert’s criticism sharply surveys our contemporary media landscape. This collection joins treatises on beloved series like Game of Thrones with thoughtful meditations on Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale; ponders the lessons supermodels offer us on questions of consent; and examines the rebellious literary legacies of Jane Austen, Margaret Atwood, and their respective contemporaries. On Womanhood offers some of the most commanding popular criticism of this generation.

'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 'Riveting, incisive, rousing' MELISSA FEBOS, author of Girlhood Cosmetic surgeries are 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? Despite decades of progress, the gains of the feminist movement feel more fragile than ever. But as Atlantic critic and Pulitzer Prize finalist Sophie Gilbert points out, this is not a unique moment. Feminism felt just as fragmented in the early 2000s, when the momentum of third-wave feminists and 'riot grrrl's was squashed by lad culture and the commodification of 'Girl Power'. Casting her eye across pop culture of the past thirty years - from Madonna, the Spice Girls and the Kardashians, to MySpace, #GirlBoss and Real Housewives - Sophie Gilbert reveals a toxic pattern of progress and misogynistic backlash. Girl on Girl shows how every form of media, heavily influenced by the rise of porn, has shaped and warped women's relationships with themselves and other women, and asks what lies ahead. We cannot move forward without fully reckoning with how pop culture has defined us - this book shows us how.

How Pop Culture Turned Women Against Themselves

Jennifer Senior

Derek Thompson

Kaitlyn Tiffany

Megan Garber

Lenika Cruz

Lizzie Plaugic

The first six Atlantic Editions in a boxed collection. On BTS: Pop Music, Fandom, Sincerity by Lenika Cruz A love letter to Korean pop sensation BTS and an ode to fandom. On Misdirection: Magic, Mayhem, American Politics by Megan Garber An investigation of misinformation and fracturing in contemporary American political culture. On Womanhood: Bodies, Literature, Choice by Sophie Gilbert Twelve incisive, probing essays on womanhood in popular culture. On Grief: Love, Loss, Memory by Jennifer Senior The unflinching Pulitzer Prize-winning essay on mourning and recovery in the wake of an inconceivable tragedy. On Nobody Famous: Guesting, Gossiping, Gallivanting by Kaitlyn Tiffany and Lizzie Plaugic Dispatches from the everyday adventures of two regular women in New York. On Work: Money, Meaning, Identity by Derek Thompson A rousing commentary on the history of labor and the future of work. Atlantic Editions draw fromThe Atlantic's rich literary history and robust coverage of the driving cultural and political forces of today. Each book features reported essays by Atlantic writers from the magazine's 165-year archive.

Atlantic Editions 1-6 Boxed Set

Sophie Gilbert

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