Let’s not even go into the attacks on reproductive freedom or all the violence against women, or even the Aaron Sorkin characters who set your teeth on edge. Let’s just talk about the ways pop culture can chip away at the soul, the ways a jokey demonstration of a game or an imaginary Twitter fight or yet another celebrity explaining that she believes in equality but don’t call her a feminist or the sound of that song that just wouldn’t go away can make a person realize how far we still have to go. There were truly far too many contenders to choose from this year, but these were the sexist lowlights that raised our blood pressure most.

Elan Gale

It turned out “Diane,” the huffy airline passenger in the medical mask, never even existed. What Buzzfeed dubbed an “epic” encounter that “won” Thanksgiving was instead merely the “Bachelor” producer’s stunt to “entertain some people” with “a cautionary tale.” Gale’s “entertaining,” “cautionary” message? You can pretend to send a strange woman a note saying, “Eat my dick” and be lauded as a champion of civility. Got it.

Bustle

In an inadvertently revealing feature on Bleacher Report co-founder Bryan Goldberg’s attempt to “redefine what ‘women’s interest’ looks like,” the New Yorker showed the world a man who’s disappointed. Disappointed, because “Honestly, nothing would have been more helpful here than for some highly regarded feminist writers to say, ‘Bryan’s a good person.’” A man who explains, “I am a dude. I don’t have a lot of overlapping interests with most women my age. I’m really into history. I’m really into markets and finance. I don’t know a damn thing about beauty, but I don’t need to.” Because those unhelpful feminists wouldn’t be into history or finance. And the photo accompanying the whole thing? It was of a thoughtful Goldberg sprawled on the floor and surrounded by a gaggle of female employees, tapping away on a laptop perched on a high-heeled, short-skirted woman’s lap. Who says it’s tough for women to find desk jobs?