Caitlin Flanagan
Caitlin Flanagan began her magazine-writing career, in 2001, with a series of extended book reviews about the conflicts at the very heart of modern life—specifically, modern domestic life as it is lived by professional-class women. Flanagan has quickly established herself as a highly entertaining social critic unafraid to take on self-indulgence and political correctness, and her reviews provide penetrating and witheringly funny observations about the sexes and their discontents.
Flanagan's Atlantic articles have been named as finalists for the National Magazine Award five times, and her essay "Confessions of a Prep School College Counselor," which ran in September 2001, was included in the 2002 compilation of Best American Magazine Writing. Her work has also been included in Best American Essays 2003 and Best American Magazine Writing 2003. She is the author of the book To Hell with All That—an exploration, based on her Atlantic articles, of the lives of modern women.
Born and raised in Berkeley, California, Flanagan earned a B.A. and an M.A. in Art History from the University of Virginia. She now lives in California, where she spends her time writing and raising twins.
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Mary Calvert / Reuters Ilhan Omar’s Opportunity
The Minnesota congresswoman could take a bolder stand for some of her most vulnerable constituents.
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Steve Marcus / Reuters My Father’s Gun
Americans have turned weapons of war into consumer goods.
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Regis Duvignau / Reuters Tarantino’s Most Transgressive Film
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood celebrates values that have been repeatedly dismissed as dangerous and outdated.
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Loren Elliott / AFP / Getty Christ in the Camps
Migrant children are suffering. Christians need to help.
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Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP The Fury of the Prep-School Parents
An elite-college education is one of the few expensive things that is for sale, but that not everyone is allowed to buy.
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New Studio The Problem With HR
For 30 years, we’ve trusted human-resources departments to prevent and address workplace sexual harassment. How’s that working out?
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Getty A High-School Porn Star’s Cry for Help
When did we lose the ability to interpret the signs of a girl in bad trouble?
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Gretchen Ertl / Reuters They Had It Coming
The parents indicted in the college-admissions scandal were responding to a changing America, with rage at being robbed of what they believed was rightfully theirs.
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Mike Segar / Reuters The Art of a Monster
Michael Jackson’s music is a gift. What do we do with it now?
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Brian Snyder / Reuters The Anger of Amy Klobuchar
Don’t sell cruelty and pathological behavior as a feminist victory.
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Jessica Rinaldi / Reuters Dianne Feinstein Doesn’t Need a Do-Over
Confronted by passionate schoolchildren, the senator held a master class in patience, grace, and asserting her well-earned authority.
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John Minchillo / AP The Media Botched the Covington Catholic Story
And the damage to their credibility will be lasting.
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Kevin Lamarque / Reuters What Is Ivanka Trump’s Role in the White House?
The motivations and aspirations of the self-proclaimed “first daughter” remain a mystery.
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Caitlin Ochs / Reuters Kirsten Gillibrand’s Invocation of ‘Intersectionality’ Backfires
The senator tried to leverage the political power of a social movement to move herself closer to the presidency.
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The ‘Satanic Evil’ of Child Sex Abuse in the Catholic Church
The Church is not only failing its children—it’s also alienating its mothers.
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Brian Snyder / Reuters The Dueling Deities of Harvard
The institution is driven to protect legacy and wealth, but also to create a more diverse and egalitarian student body.
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Mike Segar / Reuters Megyn Kelly’s Inevitable Downfall
The onetime Fox News star was never going to succeed as a network morning-show host.
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Yuri Gripas / Reuters Elizabeth Warren Has Lost Her Way
Trump’s bullying so unnerved the senator that she resorted to a bizarre and tone-deaf move.
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Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP What Survivors Heard in Christine Blasey Ford’s Testimony
Caitlin Flanagan and others who have experienced sexual assault share their reflections.
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Michelle McLoughlin / Reuters The Abandoned World of 1982
The year Brett Kavanaugh allegedly assaulted Christine Blasey Ford at a party saw the first stirrings of a revolution in how American girls were raised, and how they would regard themselves.
