Joy Styles

Back in 2019, the 48-year-old Antioch resident was elected to represent district 32 on the Metro Nashville City Council. Styles earned a reputation early in her appointment as someone who bosses people around. Known for scolding fellow council members about their “white privilege”, in October 2020, Styles made a ridiculous spectacle of herself by wearing a hazmat suit to the council’s first in-person meeting since the onset of the pandemic. Though she wore it to protect herself from Covid-19, perhaps the suit more accurately symbolizes the fact that she’s the toxic one and the environment around her needs protecting. She’s been obsessed with masking Metro ever since.

As Covid deaths were plummeting and schools, venues, parks, shops, restaurants, libraries, and museums in the Metro area were trying to get back to normal, Styles sponsored multiple masking bills and resolutions. Masking forever seemed to be the mantra as she brought forward a bill and a resolution in August of 2021. Both pieces of legislation required masks in all public areas. While one was deferred indefinitely, the other was passed and took effect without the Mayor’s signature. You can also find Styles’ name listed as a sponsor of kids masking in Metro schools, which lasted until March of 2022 and proudly recognizing the work of Michelle Fiscus, M.D. — our winner of the Biggest Predator Award — for her leadership during the pandemic. Styles should come with a Warning Label: toxic, poisonous, and possibly explosive. Her inclination for clinging to control by doubling down on masking protocols far after the science had proved their ineffectiveness wins Joy Styles our “Highly Toxic To The Environment Flat Curver Award.”