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Think from KERA

The sexualization of girl power

Think from KERA

KERA

Kera, 071003, Think, Society & Culture, Krysboyd

4.7911 Ratings

🗓️ 19 December 2025

⏱️ 47 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The early 2000s preached “girl power” to the masses — but that often looked like sex and plastic surgery. Sophie Gilbert, staff writer at The Atlantic, joins host Krys Boyd to discuss what coming of age in the early aughts meant for young women in an atmosphere of highly sexualized body image, how porn manifested itself into pop culture, and what society had to say about powerful women. Her book is “Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves.”

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Transcript

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0:00.0

Have you heard about OMG? Yes. This is a website the New York Times wirecutter featured as one of their most popular gifts. And for good reason, it presents new findings from the largest ever research study into women's pleasure and intimacy. In partnership with researchers at Yale and at Indiana University, they asked tens of thousands of women what they

0:21.6

wished they and their partners had discovered sooner. They found the patterns in those

0:26.2

discoveries and all that wisdom and intimacy is organized as hundreds of short videos,

0:31.6

animations, and how-toes. When you see OMG, yes, you might understand why wirecutter recommended it.

0:38.2

It is warm, honest, and has regular women talking about real experiences.

0:42.7

It's truly eye-opening.

0:44.8

See for yourself at omgyes.com.

0:47.3

That's OMGS.com. There are lots of reasons to divide history into the millennia that played out before the digital age and everything that will happen after.

1:07.4

Commerce, communications, and culture are all radically different than they were before just about

1:12.4

everybody on the planet went online. And one form of online activity that has had an outsized

1:18.4

effect on the lives of women is one that is overwhelmingly tailored toward the desires of men,

1:24.1

pornography. From KERA in Dallas, this is think. I'm Chris Boyd. Explicit content is

1:31.1

unquestionably easier to access now than it was at the end of the 20th century. And regardless

1:36.6

of our views on porn, regardless of whether we ever seek it out for personal gratification,

1:42.4

its influence is deeply pervasive.

1:44.9

And my guest believes it's had a profound impact on how women understand themselves,

1:49.9

one another, and their fundamental value.

1:52.7

Sophie Gilbert is a staff writer at the Atlantic.

1:55.6

Her new book is called Girl on Girl,

1:57.4

how pop culture turned a generation of women against themselves.

2:00.8

Sophie, welcome back to think. Thank you so much for having me. on girl, how pop culture turned a generation of women against themselves.

2:02.4

Sophie, welcome back to think.

...

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