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.  However, 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 grrrls 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. We cannot move forward without fully reckoning with the ways pop culture has defined us – this book shows us how.