Few people are as experienced at generating controversy as American essayist Caitlin Flanagan, who has previously incited female ire with her takes on everything from housewives ("Women have a deeply felt emotional connection to housekeeping") and working mothers ("At a certain point a mother must choose between her work and her child") to the flaws of Joan Didion.
Last week, Flanagan's new book Girl Land, which argues that the internet has a destabilising affect on teenage girls, was published in the US (it will be released in the UK on Thursday), and promptly kick-started an internet war.
"The current culture, with its driving imperatives of exhibitionism, of presenting oneself to the world in the most forward and blasting way possible, has made the experience of Girl Land especially charged and difficult," writes Flanagan. "There is no such thing as a private experience any more … I would contend that [this] is most punishing to girls."
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