Sophie Gilbert

Sophie Gilbert is a staff writer at The Atlantic. She won the 2024 National Magazine Award for Reviews and Criticism and was a finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Criticism. She is the author of On Womanhood: Bodies, Literature, Choice, and the forthcoming Girl on Girl, an analysis of 21st-century popular culture's influence on women. Before joining The Atlantic in 2014, she was the arts editor at Washingtonian.

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What Madonna Knows

The artist is always one step ahead—and has a unique power to scandalize each generation anew.

A portrait of Madonna on a red background.
Ken Regan / Camera 5 / Contour RA by Getty

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  1. Melania Really Doesn’t Care

    Her new memoir is a master class in how selective attention and empathy can insulate someone from the pains that trouble the rest of us.

    Photo of Melania Trump, the top half of her face obscured by a red bar
    Illustration by Akshita Chandra / The Atlantic. Source: Jonathan Ernst / Reuters.
  2. Nicole Kidman’s Perpetual Trick

    The actor has excelled at embracing female artifice—and then demolishing it from the inside out.

    Images of Nicole Kidman in 'The Perfect Couple' and 'The Stepford Wives'
    Illustration by Akshita Chandra / The Atlantic. Sources: Seacia Pavao / Netflix; Paramount / Everett Collection; Mike Hill / Getty.