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Feminist Pop Culture's Dark Turn: Sophie Gilbert's Chilling Assessment
In her powerhouse book, Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves (Chica contra chica: Cómo la cultura pop volvió a una generación de mujeres contra sí mismas), Sophie Gilbert, a London-based, trend-setting journalist, lays bare the disconcerting state of Anglo-American pop culture. According to her, despite significant advancements for women in society and politics, the 21st-century patriarchy is alive and kicking.
Born during the 80s, Gilbert delves into the sexually charged power dynamics she encountered, questioning why women Buy-In to this education and judge it in others. She delves deep into the world of popular culture, from music and television to film and fashion.
Chasing the Pink Panther
Gilbert suggests that the turbulence of the 2000s witnessed a startling turn of events. Whereas Madonna's rebellious spirit and the riot grrrl movement heralded hope for a generation, these were swiftly replaced by a bogus notion of female power. All-female bands, managed by the male 'bros' behind the scenes, replaced the raw, female energy of social critique.
Pop Culture's Blue Pill
Gilbert scrutinizes phenomena like the ascent and decline of Britney Spears, the Kardashians' global phenomenon, and the exploitation of models such as Kate Moss, not just in music, but also in the tabloid press, art, advertising, and social media. She calls out an industry that promised third-wave feminism, but taught women to avoid being either strident or puritanical, to hide aging, and, most chilling, to turn against other women, thus diluting feminism's collective clout.
The Great Divide
As a millennial keen on understanding how and why these developments transpired, Gilbert asks the hard questions. Why are cultural products almost exclusively male-centric? Why do women so easily buy into their own inadequacy? And at whose urging, for decades, has this been the norm?
The answers, Gilbert contends, are myriad and undeniable. In music, the fierce activist energy of the riot grrrls gave way to the hyper-commercialized Spice Girls in the 90s. The birth of hardcore rap celebrated misogyny and sexual violence against women.
Girl Attack
In literature and later film, the 'hapless woman' character emerged, replacing powerful, self-assured female figures with fragile, passive versions. Powerful supermodels who commanded respect and remuneration were replaced by demure, submissive teenagers.
But, according to Gilbert, no single factor wielded as much influence as the proliferation of pornography. Men and women alike are taught to view women as objects, "things to be silenced, restricted, fetishized, or brutalized," she says, hinting at the meaning behind her book's title. "Girl on girl" represents not just pornography's popular sub-genre, but also the internalized misogyny that post-feminist culture has fostered in women.
The Stealth Attack
Chapter by chapter, Gilbert sheds light on how the rejection of second and third wave feminism, as well as the riot grrrl movement, fueled the rise of online communities like the incel culture, traditional wives (trad wives in English), and stay-at-home girlfriends promoted on TikTok, among others.
This exploration of popular culture's profound influence is a wake-up call for anyone grappling with the recent Supreme Court's decision to dismantle Roe v. Wade and the re-election of Donald Trump, both of which underscore the underlying appeal of these messages to a significant number of men and women alike.
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Notes:- 1: Gilbert, S. (2021). Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves. Riverhead Books.- 2: Johnson, K. (2021). The man who could crack the code of misogyny in pop culture. USA Today. Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/books/2021/02/05/girl-girl-sophie-gilbert-misogyny-explained/4392020001/- 3: Wolf, B. (2021). How pop culture ushered in a post-feminist era. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/feb/12/how-pop-culture-ushered-in-a-post-feminist-era- Overall: Sophie Gilbert's Girl on Girl argues that 21st-century pop culture reversed feminist progress by reframing female empowerment through patriarchal lenses, fostering competition among women. Here's a synthesis of her critique:- Cultural Shift from Subversion to Conformity: Gilbert identifies the late 1990s/early 2000s as a turning point when third-wave and Riot Grrrl feminism’s radical energy was supplanted by a regressive focus on hyper-sexualization, infantilization, and internalized misogyny. Pop culture increasingly portrayed women as objects of male desire rather than autonomous agents, replacing transgressive figures with sanitized "girl power" icons and later #Girlboss narratives that prioritized individual success over collective solidarity.- Mechanisms of Rivalry: - Reality TV and Tabloid Culture: Gilbert dissects early reality TV's emphasis on catfights, gossip, and performative femininity, which normalized women policed by—and policing—other women. - Marketable Femininity: Brands and media co-opted feminist rhetoric to sell products, reducing empowerment to consumerist choices (e.g., "self-care" as commodification) while pitting women against each other in competitions for male approval. - Nostalgia as a Trap: By romanticizing outdated gender roles (e.g., 1950s-style domesticity in media), pop culture framed patriarchal norms as aspirational, further entrenching rivalry over shared goals.- Consequences: Gilbert describes a "cultural coup" where genuine feminist discourse was replaced by narratives emphasizing individual exceptionalism, forcing women to compete for limited slots in patriarchal systems. This shift, she argues, diluted collective resistance and enabled legislative backlash against gender equality.- Critics highlight Gilbert’s meticulous tracing of this regression, calling the book "essential cultural criticism" for exposing how pop culture’s "matrix of misogyny" recast female autonomy as a threat to be neutralized.
- Sophie Gilbert's book, Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves, explores the shift from radical feminist energy to a regressive focus on hyper-sexualization, infantilization, and internalized misogyny in 21st-century pop culture.
- In her analysis, Gilbert suggests that reality TV and tabloid culture emphasized catfights, gossip, and performative femininity, normalizing women policed by—and policing—other women.
- Brands and media co-opted feminist rhetoric to sell products, reducing empowerment to consumerist choices in the name of "self-care" while pitting women against each other in competitions for male approval.
- Nostalgia for outdated gender roles was romanticized in media, framing patriarchal norms as aspirational, further entrenching rivalry over shared goals.
- Gilbert argues that this cultural shift diluted collective resistance and enabled legislative backlash against gender equality, likening it to a "cultural coup" where genuine feminist discourse was replaced by narratives emphasizing individual exceptionalism.
