Victoria Smith – författare

När en kvinna fyller fyrtio tappar hon per automatik i status. Detta är upplevelsen i mången kultur- och identitetspolitisk debatt: kvinnor i medelåldern och uppåt talas om som sämre människor, som ansiktena utåt för intolerans och självberättigande. Det är helt enkelt något med en kvinna som i samhällets ögon inte längre anses ung som upprör. I ”Haggor” går Victoria Smith på ett skarpsynt och humoristiskt sätt igenom hatet mot äldre kvinnor genom historien och inom olika teman, som skönhet, sex, arbete och politik; och varför tidigare epokers häxprocesser visade på en misogyni som går igen än idag.

''Victoria Smith is a brilliant writer who every feminist should read'' Sharron Davies''This brilliant book shows how demands for compassion and generosity can be a mask for sexist ideology'' Susanna RustinA brilliantly witty and insightful analysis of how kindness culture is used against women. Using the #JustBeKind trend of the 2020s as a starting point, (Un)kind explores how traditional beliefs about women''s ''kind'' nature have been repackaged for an age that remains dependent - socially, politically, economically - on female self-sacrifice while finding the concept outdated and essentialist. Looking at the various guises under which kindness culture is sold to women and girls - from play to self-help, social justice activism to empowerment - Victoria Smith argues that the pressure on women and girls has not decreased, but instead been incorporated into the ''work'' of feminism. (Un)kind analyses the way in which this phenomenon ultimately distorts relationships, harming not just those coerced into performing ''kindness work'' but the supposed recipients of their services.Kindness culture supports the backlash against feminism while claiming to represent feminism''s - and women''s - true nature. It is, at heart, unkind.''Erudite, blisteringly smart and profoundly compassionate... A must-read for anyone hungry to understand the origins and dangers of contemporary exhortations to women to #BeKind, and for everyone who wants to live a feminist life'' Dr Rachel HewittPRAISE FOR HAGS''The greatest joy of Hags is its lively erudition . . . eloquent, clever and devastating'' The Times ''A book that could not be more necessary'' Observer ''Brilliantly witty, engaging and insightful'' Scotsman

SHORTLISTED FOR THE NERO PRIZE 2023''A book that could not be more necessary'' Observer''Eloquent, clever and devastating'' The Times''Deftly illustrates how ageist misogyny remains an acceptable prejudice'' GuardianWhat is about women in middle-age and beyond that seems to enrage - almost everyone?In the last few years, as identity politics has taken hold, middle-aged women have found themselves talked and written about as morally inferior beings, the face of bigotry, entitlement and selfishness, to be ignored, pitied or abused.Hags asks the question why these women are treated with such active disdain. Each chapter takes a different theme - care work, beauty, violence, political organization, sex - and explores it in relation to middle-aged women''s beliefs, bodies and choices. Victoria Smith traces the attitudes she describes back to the same anxieties about older women that drove Early Modern witch hunts, and explores the very specific reasons why this type of misogyny is so powerful today. The demonisation of hags has never felt more now.Victoria Smith has decided in this book that she will be the Karen so nobody else has to be, and she ends on a positive note, exploring potential solutions which can benefit all women, hags and hags-in-waiting.Shortlisted for the Nero Book Awards announced 21 November 2023.