Hags: 'eloquent, clever and devastating' The Times

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Women in middle age are far from elderly; most of their adult lives are still ahead of them. But, says Victoria Smith in Hags: The Demonisation of Middle-aged Women, once women are no longer young they are inevitably seen not only as past their expiry dates but also annoying, useless, entitled and embarrassing. Oh, and ugly of course.

But eventually Dutchman-Smith's conservative, transphobic rhetoric became all too clear and I couldn't persist. Smith writes of “the spite that arises when men deem us to have served our purpose and wonder why we are still here”. Whilst there are some interesting observations, I cannot continue - Wolf comparing Covid 19 jabs to mass murder, & the biological woman beliefs of Rowling amongst many other things.There is something very off-putting from the tone of the writing too. A very "I'm not like other girls because I dare to..." etc without any self reflection with how that comes across. There's critique of skin care and makeup but it's not really in depth. A lot of skin care is a farce but the epidermis is our largest organ and requires some form of care? Instead of focusing her critique to that of anti-aging BS she just slams skin care as a whole? Her arguments are both narrow but general and shallow? It's wild how terrible this book is when there is so much that you could build decent arguments around. Let's start by saying transwomen are women and if you're yelling at customer service staff you deserve to be called a Karen. I noticed this book as I was looking for things to read about ageism. This is so much better. Firstly, the author writes brilliantly. Her erudition is combined with the most mordant and effective humour. Secondly she argues so persuasively, her justified anger not concealed but always taking you with her through a crescendo of aspects of misogny towards her age group and older. the thread of comparisons to witch burning on the late Middle Ages were horrifying and fascinating.And I learnt a lot about the history of feminisms along the way as well as her arguments being about what is happening now.

These adverts enable local businesses to get in front of their target audience – the local community. The idea that the person who gave birth to you, breastfed you, dealt with your tantrums and taught you how to use a toilet is a human being with an inner life just as rich as your own is an indignity too much for some people – some men, especially – to bear, the ultimate case of being beaten by a girl. Therefore, women’s link to physical dependency must mean they are purely physical creatures, incapable of interpreting their own experiences – “too stupid to understand their own jokes”, as Smith puts it. The life of the mind belongs to men. Women may be given guest access, as long as they are not yet subsumed into that “bovine” mass of middle-aged mothers. The author describes how the experiences of women around fertility and child bearing is diminished by gender neutral language but I don’t think that is necessarily the case either. I won’t go into this as others have in much better detail. After all, defining experiences such as periods and pregnancy as belonging only to cis women has so far worked not so well in terms of changing the status quo anyways.The other type were brutes, mercenaries under a hag's employ with free will that ran errands, roughed up assigned targets, patrolled unimportant areas and otherwise attended to laborious tasks beneath the hag's personal attention. [2] [13] Though hags were known to employ ogres, the term brute was generally misleading since hags preferred employees willing and capable of cunning cruelty as opposed to strong but stupid bumblers. These could be other kinds of evil giants, lycanthropes, dark fey, sneaky creatures like bugbears, kenku, and doppelgangers, or other strange monsters like ettercaps, gargoyles, [2] [4] and aberrations. [13]

The exact methodology and timing of it was argued over, but the general idea of the changeling or caliban, was that a hag replaced their daughters with those of other races to continue their lineage. Despite occasionally feeling the compulsion to procreate, hags had no maternal instincts and only rarely raised their spawn themselves if they planned to use them in a coven. Instead, hags had to go out and find a suitable newborn child to kill and replace with their own spawn, parasitically leeching off whatever race or culture the hag targeted as she sadistically watched her daughter's growth and the impact it had on those around them. [1] [7] [10] The true lifespan of hags was unknown, and if not fully immortal, they were nevertheless long-lived for many races. At minimum they lived for several centuries and at maximum many millennia, with lifespans comparable to dragons. [2] [5] Hags that had grown very old became known as aunties, although they could also achieve that respectable title by adopting or birthing several children, joining a powerful coven or placing themselves directly under an even older hag. The eldest of the hags, as well as the most wise and powerful, were known as "grandmothers" by their sisters, some of which had strength rivaling that of the archfey. [2] Subspecies [ ] Born in the 1960s when that baby name had its zenith, I know and love several women called Karen, none of whom fit that description. So, while obnoxious, racist individuals undoubtedly deserve to be denounced, it’s disturbing to read that the name has been co-opted as an insult often aimed at older feminists who fought tirelessly for equality but whose views on sex-based rights are at odds with the current liberal orthodoxy. Skip Williams, Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook (July 2003). Monster Manual v.3.5. ( Wizards of the Coast), pp. 143–144. ISBN 0-7869-2893-X. Ed Bonny (1997). “Pox of the Planes”. In Dave Gross ed. Dragon Annual #2 ( TSR, Inc.) (2)., p. 104.

Hags tolerated little disrespect in regards to mortals because all possessed at least one crippling weakness: arrogance. Hags treated almost all other beings, particularly humans and demihumans, as inferiors, believing themselves to be the most cunning of all beings. [1] [5] This natural sense of superiority was, in some cases, unwarranted, [10] and while they were extremely clever, their confidence could lead them to accidentally reveal something during conversation that the more cautious wouldn't let slip. [5] As someone “becoming invisible” due to my age, I agree with some of the discussions about beauty standards and fertility. I thought the chapters on sexual violence and rape culture were well considered too and horrifying! I have some teenage memories of the 90s culture that the author discusses and her experiences of them made me reflect on my own experiences too. Completely agree about using Karen as a term to belittle the views of women when we do t have an alternative for equally racist and entitled men.