“Rethinking sex,” as Christine Emba eloquently wrote in her book of the same name, is all well and good. But what do we do with the women who have lost their value in the sexual marketplace (or who never had it at all)? What do we do with the women who forcibly exited because they are already married or already mothers? What do we do with those who are, once again, being told to sit down and shut up, to make space for the younger cohort, who, by virtue of their youth, are more “in touch” and thereby know better?

I sought out Victoria Smith’s Hags: The Demonisation of Middle-Aged Women on a quest to find contemporary feminist literature that touched on female invisibility.