Zohran Mamdani, who was elected mayor of New York, and his wife Rama Duwaji vote at The Frank Sinatra School of the Arts on Nov. 4 in Queens.Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images

We live in an era where you can say just about anything about women and get away with it. And between the newly elected New York mayor’s partner being branded an “aloof wife” to Trump’s calling members of the media “piggy,” “ugly,” and “stupid,” last month was a particularly busy time for such name-calling. Before you reply with an adult version of “sticks and stones may break my bones,” let’s be clear: these words aim to roll back women’s advancement in the workplace by decades.

Let’s start with Rama Duwaji. Ahead of New York’s mayoral election, The New York Post described Zohran Mamdani’s 28-year-old Texas-born, Syrian-American wife “aloof” for keeping her social media channels focused on her own work as an animator, illustrator and ceramicist rather than posting dutifully about her husband. “Aloof” also for skipping out on some debates, even though Duwaji is widely credited as being the creative force behind her husband’s campaign.

While it didn’t sound like a direct insult, with that one word the Post raised a curious eyebrow over Duwaji’s behaviour. As a Cosmopolitan writer

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