By Lori Perkins
2023 definitely belongs to Taylor Swift – no question. But I’m thinking that even though it’s only January, 2024 is going to be the Year of E. Jean Carroll.
Who would have ever thought that this slight, 80 year-old woman would be the one to actually get the vulgar, sexist loud-mouthed former president of the United States to finally shut up?
There’s a meme going around that really sums it up. It’s a headshot of Carroll with the words “I grabbed him by the wallet,” which, of course, refers to the $83.3 million Donald Trump has to pay writer Carroll for defamation and damages for refusing to stop defaming her. This is on top of the $5 million he was previously ordered to pay to stop saying and writing defamatory things about her.
No longer famous- she was a well-known advice columnist for a women’s magazine decades ago – but now retired – Carroll was inspired by the #MeToo movement and a sense of righteousness probably coupled with a-someone-has-to-stand-up-to-this-bully mentality. No one would ever has guessed that this almost invisible older woman would be the most deadly weapon against this gross exemplar of sexism and misogyny.
In a recent New York Times interview, Carroll said that she hopes to be able to “do something good” with the money we all hope she will ultimately receive, but even if it never arrives in her bank account, she has already done an immense amount of good in this world. She has shown that no one is above the law and that someone as unassuming as an 80 year-old can still pack a punch.