“I survive off the idea that one day my rage will be witnessed by the men who poisoned me with it in the first place.” -Mya G.Wolf.
Throughout history, female rage has been a misinterpreted notion. Women who reacted, or better say, stood up to being mistreated, unappreciated, and underestimated were only seen as “emotional” when they speak up. On the other hand, when a man expresses his anger he is respected, celebrated even. Recently, it gained huge popularity mainly in pop culture as it is embraced more than ever. Instagram reels and TikTok are flooded with hashtags of “Female Rage”, scenes of powerful women in films showing their anger in various shapes and forms, but let us first dig deep into the essence of it, what does it actually mean?
Female Rage is a response that is hereditary and ancestral to the injustices, difficulties, and oppressions that women have experienced throughout their lives. Men, unfortunately, perceive an angry woman as “crazy”, so instead she suppresses her emotions, silently suffering to accommodate the man’s needs. Women have encountered anger for a long time but never showed it, they were expected to be nothing but soft, delicate, and sweet, as if a woman is only made for one sole purpose, to always be a people-pleaser or even worse, a man-pleaser.
Recently, films have begun to recognize and portray the complexities of female rage more than ever, and here are some examples that portray female rage with such brilliance and impact that it inspires all women to truly express their rage.
1. Gone Girl
Based on the book, one of the great things that stand out in this movie is the iconic Cool Girl Monologue, and how it perfectly portrays how Amy (Rosamund Pike) is finally giving up her “cool girl” act to please the male gaze, specifically her cheating husband Nick (Ben Affleck). Amy refused to just go and cry softly about it. Instead, she sought pure revenge on him.
2. Don't Worry Darling
In this psychological thriller, When Alice(Florence Pugh) discovers later that her husband Jack(Harry Styles) has been trapping her in a picture-perfect simulation in the 1950s, stripping her of her right to choose, she hits him with glass over his head leading to his death. She then tries to escape the misogynist simulation in hopes of exposing the project to the real world.
3. Hidden Figures
Based on real-life events, this movie perfectly represents the inequality, and discrimination that women of color faced in employment in the 1960s. Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson) has experienced a period of racial injustice and a continuous need to validate her intelligence because of her gender. In this masterpiece of a monologue, she snaps at her boss, explaining her hardships in the workplace and earning her rights after it.
4. Kill Bill Vol. 1
Kill Bill tells the story of a former assassin known as “The Bride” who slowly seeks revenge against her former colleagues who betrayed her and resulted in the killing of her unborn child. Played by Uma Thurman, she embodied the sense of female rage and was determined to seek revenge and kill those who wronged her.
There is a reason why women experience a feeling of victory every time they watch a heroine taking revenge on screen and that is because, in a way, they feel someone else managed to do what they couldn’t. However, the aim message here is not to encourage revenge, but rather to remember that extreme acts of this sort are a result of bottled-up anger and moments when women didn’t stand up for themselves. This is why we are sending out a reminder women not to accept mistreatment from anyone and to speak up on the spot.
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