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The Demonisation of Middle-Aged Women With Victoria Smith and Hadley Freeman

Why are middle-aged women these days subject to so much rage and hatred?

Why are middle-aged women these days subject to so much rage and hatred? Why are they so often portrayed as entitled, selfish and morally inferior – frequently by people who see themselves as progressive and kind? 

As writer Victoria Smith approached middle age, she made her peace with her sagging neckline and having to cope with ageing parents. But the disdain and vitriol she experienced as a woman in mid-life came as a shock. In her new book Hags: The Demonisation of Middle-Aged Women she traces the ageism and misogyny that have been directed towards older women throughout history and explores why these attitudes have become increasingly prevalent in recent years. 

In conversation with The Sunday Times’s Hadley Freeman Smith dissected the popularity of the Karen meme, which references a stereotypically privileged white woman; she explored why women who have the temerity to exist beyond the age at which they are desirable to men are  seen as superfluous to society; and she suggested potential solutions which can benefit all women – whether they are hags or hags-in-waiting. 

Praise for Victoria Smith’s Hags: The Demonisation of Middle-Aged Women

‘My polemic of the year … a book that could not be more necessary (a sword and a shield) in the current climate.’ – Rachel Cooke, The Observer

 


Speakers

Speaker

Victoria Smith 

Writer on women's issues and author of Hags: The Demonisation of Middle-Aged Women


A regular contributor to the Critic, where she writes on women's issues, parenting and mental health. Her work has also appeared in the New Statesman, The Independent and Unherd. Her newsletter, The OK Karen, looks at midlife women's experiences of feminism, and she tweets @glosswitch. She holds a PhD in German literature, with a particular interest in romanticism and dark fairy tales.   
Chair

Hadley Freeman

Staff writer at The Sunday Times and author of Good Girls: A Story and Study of Anorexia


Staff writer at The Sunday Times who was previously at The Guardian for more than two decades. Her last book, House of Glass, was a Sunday Times bestseller. Her next book, Good Girls: A Story and Study of Anorexia, will be published in the US and UK in April 2023.