2022 was not the first year American women were angry—far from it—but it sure gave us a lot more reasons to be angrier. Between the massive scale-back of pregnant people’s rights and not one but two highly visible celebrity trials involving intimate partner violence in which the internet overwhelmingly blamed and vilified the women, it’s hardly surprising that revenge and its cathartic joys became such a salient cultural narrative. We’re all fed up, and playing nice has only taken us so far.
This was the year Roe v. Wade was overturned and numerous anti-abortion zealots lost key midterm races as a result. The year of Elon Musk buying Twitter and subsequently being voted out of leadership by millions of its users in his own poll. The year of crypto scammers flying too close to the sun and finally facing some consequences.
And yet, like people, years contain multitudes! This was also a year of shade and pettiness at the Cannes Film Festival, of a Kanye West subreddit being converted into a Taylor Swift shrine. Let’s take a stroll down memory lane through some of 2022's most satisfying moments.
