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Quillette’s Most Read—2024
Our most popular essays of 2024.
· 3 min read
Welcome to our most popular articles of the year, based on the number of page views from 1 January to 19 December 2024.
These articles cover many issues that have reared their heads this past year, like XY athletes in women’s sports, the Israel–Hamas War and the re-election of Donald Trump but also topics like why men dominate chess and why plastic recycling may not be all it’s cracked up to be.
Congratulations to the authors and our dedicated team of editors for delivering such high-quality journalism.
One
XY Athletes in Women’s Olympic Boxing: The Paris 2024 Controversy Explained
The historical, political, and medical context of the Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting cases.
Doriane Lambelet Coleman
Two
College Volleyball’s Spartan Meltdown
In a scathing Title IX Complaint obtained by Quillette, a San José State University women’s volleyball coach explains how her school’s aggressively enforced transgender-inclusion policy created a toxic environment for female athletes.
Jonathan Kay
Three
The Seven Laws of Pessimism
If life is better than ever before, why does the world seem so depressing?
Maarten Boudry
Four
Recycling Plastic Is a Dangerous Waste of Time
The recycling industry—and the world at large—has yet to fully reckon with a bombshell study that dropped last year.
Frank Celia
Five
Revenge of the Silent Male Voter
What I learned about Trump’s landslide victory from one night in New York City.
Claire Lehmann
Six
Why Do Men Dominate Chess?
FIDE’s new policy governing who can compete in women’s categories highlights the persistent sex imbalance at the game’s elite levels.
Carole Hooven
Seven
The NYT Misrepresents the History of the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict
A welter of factual errors and misleading judgments has produced a distorted description of the 1948 War.
Benny Morris
Eight
Intersectionality’s Cosmic Inquisitor
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein has made a name for herself as one of STEM’s most implacable activists. Now the targets of her online attacks are fighting back
Jonathan Kay
Nine
The Professor, His Nemesis, and a Scandal at Oberlin
The story of how a liberal college promoted and defended an Iranian Islamist and betrayed its own values.
Roya Hakakian
Ten
How French Intellectuals Ruined the West
Postmodernism and Its Impact, Explained.
Helen Pluckrose
