For centuries, society has placed women in the role of obedient observers, forcing them to placate others with reserved smiles and suppress their anger. In the past year or two, women’s anger has become a new concept characterized by women’s bottled-up emotions, violence against their oppressors, and the social institutions that keep them this way. This is very evident in media such as TV shows, movies, books, and videos on social media and has been proven to be both cleansing and empowering for women.
Stereotypes plague women and their emotions: the strict wife, the angry black woman, the jealous ex-girlfriend, the demanding co-worker. Female anger destroys the core values that society is built on and completely ignores the idea of simply letting things go and becoming a bigger person. Anger against people assigned female at birth (AFAB) dates back to the Bible and Renaissance art. Nevertheless, this negative representation of women has its drawbacks, such as reducing women’s pain to a mere fetish or romantic ideal rather than actual suffering.
There is a passage in the Old Testament that says, “It is better to live in the wilderness than with a contentious and angry woman.” This Bible verse essentially says that a man would rather spend time alone in the woods having his way than exist with a woman who would not feel anything but satisfaction and fulfillment for her husband. These are the words of a man who says he prefers it. If she does not control her anger, she will be considered inferior. According to Vice, a Cambridge psychology study found that women typically feel angry at men’s actions, and men are usually angered by women’s emotional reactions.
The period of Renaissance and Baroque art exhibits several famous paintings depicting women experiencing instinctive anger, combined with images of violence and revenge. One of her works from the Baroque period is “Timoclea Killing the Rapist” by Elisabetta Sirani, in which the great Timoclea pushes her attacker down a well and continues to drop stones on her body until she dies. I’m drawing. Another famous painting of hers is Artemisia Gentileschi’s “Judith Beheading Holofernes.” It is based on the Biblical story of Judith and her handmaiden brutally murdering Holofernes, a military general who ravaged the city. Artzi said Gentileschi’s own experience of sexual violence at the hands of men influenced her paintings.
One of the first examples of women coming to terms with their anger was described by 16th century author Jane Unger (pseudonym) in a pamphlet called “Protection for Women.” She criticized men’s ignorance, their reductive stereotypes of women, and their belief that impressions are the same as facts. According to Vice, in one section, “Have any women ever been so abused, so maligned, so abused, so wronged?” It is said that
The reclaiming of anger that comes with second-wave feminism can be very liberating, but it also comes with obstacles. While it remains very white-centered, black women’s anger and emotions are still constantly undermined and sidelined. Women of color are told to suppress their emotions in order to maintain social stability and peace. Black writer and feminist bell hooks once wrote, “As part of the process of colonization, we suppress our anger and never direct it toward any anger we feel about racism.” I’ve been taught not to do that.”
There are now several contemporary examples of female anger appearing in film and television, such as Pearl in the blockbuster horror film Pearl. People, mainly on her TikTok, have used this character as an example of a woman’s unbridled anger and how this character wants to abandon her simple country life for a chance to become a Hollywood celebrity. Most often used. When her dreams are shattered, she commits murder again, a metaphor for the limits placed on what women can and cannot have by those in power.
This woman’s tendency toward anger is very cathartic and justified in some ways, but also disappointing and frustrating in others. I appreciate that women from all walks of life are represented on screen as multi-dimensional characters, and that she experiences a wide range of emotions rather than just one distinctive character trait or emotion. doing. As someone who has suffered at the hands of several unstable and angry men, I was unable to express my disdain or anger at my treatment until I left the scene. Now I have anger that isn’t mine but still has to be dealt with.
This suffering and pain should be treated with the respect that trauma demands, as trauma is involved in retrieving negative emotions in women and relinquishing the role of benevolent bystander required of women. It’s not beautiful or desirable. Despite this knowledge, this sentiment is so prevalent in the media that presenting women’s anger in an aesthetic or romantic light undermines their suffering and is treated like a joke. Women’s anger should not be glorified or fetishized. Expression is not the only progress needed, but it is a promising first step.