On Womanhood

Twelve incisive, probing essays on womanhood in popular culture. An Atlantic Edition, featuring long-form journalism by Atlantic writers, drawn from contemporary articles or classic storytelling from the magazine’s 165-year 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.