MISOGYNY: The Biggest and Most Unflattering Trend Of 2023

Anyone can wear it, but that doesn't mean they should

- HANNA LUSTIG

I'D LIKE TO OFFER A BELATED CONGRATULATIONS to flagrant misogynists everywhere on the unprecedented year they had in 2022. The swift dismantling of Roe v. Wade. The tragic death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of Iran's morality police. The suffocation of women's rights in Afghanistan following the Taliban's return to power. The rise of alpha male mega-influencer and alleged sex trafficker Andrew Tate. The trauma-feeding frenzy of the defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. That vicious and weirdly personal op-ed Jeremy Clarkson wrote about Meghan Markle. Need I go on? Simply put, last year was a banner one for jerks and an objectively wretched one for women. And the forecast for this year is shaping up to be similarly bleak.

Take, for instance, CNN anchor Don Lemon's February onair fiasco during a conversation about 51-year-old Republican presidential candidate, Nikki Haley, and her controversial suggestion that older politicians like President Biden should be required to undergo mental competency testing. Lemon shared an unsolicited, not-at-all-accurate 'theory' on how women age.

"She says people, you know, politicians or something are not in their prime," Lemon said. "Nikki Haley isn't in her prime, sorry. A woman is considered to be in their prime in her 20s and 30s and maybe 40s." Prime for what exactly? Childbearing? Political discourse? An extended stay at a luxury villa in the Maldives? The world may never know. When asked to elaborate, Lemon simply told his puzzled female co hosts to "google it." "I'm just saying Nikki Haley should be careful about saying that politicians...need to be in their prime when they serve, because she would not be in her prime according to Google or whatever it is," he added clunkily before allowing the moment to pass.