Culture

The Unspeakable, Enabled

This year will decide whether the hatred of women becomes the norm.

First published in The Atlantic on January 16, 2026.

by Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic

January 22, 2026 | reading time: 6 Min.

Every time I’ve found myself lost for words over something in the news this past year—which has happened disconcertingly often—I’ve returned to the same book for guidance, the philosopher Kate Manne’s Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny, published in 2017, largely in response to the election of Donald Trump. Misogyny, Manne argues, is often less about hating women outright than about policing and punishing their behavior.