Why are middle-aged women these days subject to so much rage and hatred – frequently from people who see themselves as kind and ‘on the right side of history’? What explains the popularity of the Karen meme, which references a stereotypically privileged white woman whom everyone feels entitled to loathe? Why does this age-old misogyny feel so very now? 

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 acclaimed book Hags: The Demonisation of Middle-Aged Women she traces the prejudice that has been directed towards older women down the ages and explores the prevalence of witch hunts in recent years. 

Smith joined us on stage at The Tabernacle in London in March 2024, where she was joined by Hadley Freeman and Sonia Sodha. Together they explored why women who have the temerity to exist beyond the age at which they are conventionally deemed desirable to men are seen as superfluous to society; and they looked for 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

‘Her book traces the hatred and fear of the middle-aged woman back through history … The greatest joy of Hags is its lively erudition … This eloquent, clever and devastating book describes the last remaining acceptable prejudice, one that is now even posited as progress: the loathing of older women.’ – Janice Turner, The Times

‘Hags is rich and complex and witty and cleverer than I am. (You’d never get a male reviewer saying that.) I hope it won’t be read only in an echo chamber, by the women who are, as Smith was once called to her delight, ‘a batshit Mumsnet thread made flesh’. I hope it will also be read by young women … by young anyones; by the middle-aged and the elderly; by any man born of a mother; and by all those who agree with Smith when she writes: ‘I am not frightened of change. I am frightened of things staying the same.’ – Rose George, The Spectator