Hags: The Demonisation of middle-aged women
Victoria SmithIn the last few years, as identity politics have taken hold, middle-aged women have found themselves talked & written about as morally inferior beings: the face of bigotry, entitlement & selfishness, to be ignored, pitied or abused.
In Hags, Victoria Smith asks why these women are treated with such active disdain. Each chapter takes a different theme - care work, beauty, violence, political organization, sex - & explores it in relation to middle-aged women's beliefs, bodies, histories & choices. Smith traces the attitudes she describes through history, & explores the very specific reasons why this type of misogyny is so very now. The result is a book that is absorbing, insightful, witty & bang on time.
Victoria Smith is a regular contributor to the Critic, writing on women’s issues, parenting & mental health. Her work has also appeared in the New Statesman, the Independent & Unherd. Her newsletter, The OK Karen, looks at midlife women’s experiences of feminism, & she tweets @glosswitch. She holds a PhD in German literature, with a particular interest in Romanticism & dark fairy tales. She lives in Cheltenham with her family.