The
Perception
of Women’s Anger

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There has been a long history of negativity towards women’s rage, which can be traced back as far as the Old Testament. In the book of Proverbs, it reads, ‘It is better to dwell in the wilderness than with a contentious and angry woman’ (Solomon, 700 BC). It is surprising, and disheartening that not much has changed since this was written in 700 BC, perpetuating the same restrictive stereotypes that have persisted for millennia.

Many studies have explored the significance of women’s anger, with some suggesting that women actually experience rage more intensely and persistently than men. One of the earliest documented examples of female anger being articulated came from Jane Anger, a 16th-century writer who authored a pamphlet defending women. She was the first woman to publish a full-length defence of her sex, openly questioning the legitimacy of male dominance while emphasising the value of female anger. In Protection for Women, she writes, ‘That which my [bad-tempered vanity] hath rashly set downe... it was ANGER that did write it’ (Anger, 1589). Her words respond to the stubborn behaviours of men and the traditions designed to demean women, portraying them as mindless.

Women’s expression of anger is stigmatised due to traditional gender-role expectations, in a Refinery29 article, it explains ‘suppressed female anger is a wasted resource’ (Natalie Gil, 2018). It can be as beneficial for women as it is perceived to be for men. However, a divide is enforced in a manner similar to how women have historically been denied equal rights to men. The ability to express anger is a natural way to cope with life’s challenges and address other mental health struggles. ‘Studies of athletes show a strong correlation between body competence, self-esteem, and healthier anger expression.’ It is beneficial for people to be exposed to anger because ‘The more you know about anger, the less you will be subject to it as a negative force’ (Natalie Gil, 2018).

More recently, we can see a shift in how female rage is approached. ‘The 2020s have so far felt like a tipping point, and it seems people are finally paying attention to women’s collective anger’ (Roberts, 2024). With female rage as a trend dominating social media, it has brought the importance of rage to the forefront of people’s minds. ‘On TikTok alone has amassed over two billion views so far’ (Roberts, 2024). It makes sense that the majority of the conversation about female rage happens online, it is believed that fourth-wave feminism is digitally driven, as we have seen through the #MeToo and #BLM movements in recent years. This branch of feminism utilises online platforms to spread topics and propagate movements, women can now express their rage without the fear of being dismissed by those around them; they ‘began to hear one another and understand that we are not as isolated in our rage as we are led to believe’ (Traister, 2018).

Female rage has a long history of being reframed, misrepresented, and suppressed by societies patriarchal structures. These distortions have been deeply ingrained in modern media and culture, a study discovered that ‘it took longer for people to correctly identify the gender of female faces displaying an angry expression, as if the emotion had wandered out of its natural habitat by finding its way to their features’ (Dancyger, 2019).

My research project explores tropes of female rage to understand how they have shaped pop culture and where they originated. Stereotypes such as the ‘bad girl’, ‘angry Black woman’ and ‘eroticised latina’ exist largely in film and music, they help to fuel racial prejudices and marginalisation, where a man’s rage is viewed as ‘motivational and productive’ unlike a woman’s ‘maladaptive’ counterpart (The Take, 2021). One thing that stands out is the bias against women’s presentations of rage, their facial expressions are reprimanded and taken out of context. It seems as though women cannot showcase their anger like men can. When a man openly shows anger, it is likely to be accepted or even respected, whereas a woman’s is likely to face judgement and criticism, or be reprimanded for the same behaviour.

The ‘eroticised latina’ or ‘spicy latina’ is a trope that usually portrays Latina women as sultry and fierce, their anger is sexualised and accepted only with certain visual circumstances. A quick Google search suggests that they must be olive skinned, dark haired and curvaceous. These physical expectations objectify this group of women, using their ethnicity as a sexual fetish. While female anger is generally frowned upon, here it is rewarded, teaching these women that they are allowed to be angry under the condition that their rage is reduced to a sexualised fantasy. Their rage becomes performative, stripped of its substance. Furthermore, it commodifies their ethnicity, turning a complex cultural identity into a marketable stereotype.

This objectification and fetishisation undermine genuine expressions of Latina anger, erasing its political and personal significance and reinforcing harmful power dynamics. Focusing on the ‘angry Black woman’ stereotype also reveals significant concern. Black women often hesitate to express anger for fear of being judged and tarnished as irrational or dangerous. However, when they are unable to express their feelings and are forced to repress them, it can lead to ‘many negative health outcomes including anxiety, at a greater rate than their white counterparts’ (Gassam Asare, 2022). When a woman is forced to hide their emotions, it perpetuates a cycle where anger remains stigmatised, leaving little room to normalise emotional expression.

Beyond the stereotypes and racist tropes associated with female rage, societal perceptions of anger, particularly for female pop stars highlight deeply ingrained biases. These views stem from long-standing historical prejudices, perpetuated and amplified by the media. Women expressing anger are often dismissed as ‘crazy’ or asked to control themselves, feeding into a cycle of negativity and attack that has played out repeatedly over time. The media’s appetite for gossip, drama, and sensationalised stories ensures that these narratives continue. This continued with the rise of social media, the fascination with celebrity scandals fueled this negative understanding, cementing its place in the public’s opinion of female rage.

Britney Spears is a key example of how female anger was viewed in the early 2000’s for pop-stars. Throughout her entire career, she has been under a microscopic lens, Britney explains in her book, ‘No one was around to see me spiral - except every paparazzo in America,’ She writes, describing the pack of photographers following her as ‘an army of zombies trying to get in every second’ (Spears, 2023). One infamous moment that comes to mind when people think of angry pop stars was in 2007—not because of the act itself, but because of the headlines and internet taunting that followed. This was when Britney grabbed an umbrella and struck the paparazzi who had been tirelessly following her.

Boundaries had been crossed on both sides, yet the media uproar that followed this moment lives on even now. The way reporters and tabloids spoke of this incident highlighted the disrespectful attitude toward mental health and a woman’s anger, not only for a celebrity whose life is broadcast for public consumption but also for the hundreds of thousands of women exposed to reading those articles.

A quick search on ‘@X17Online’s’ or ‘TMZ’s’ YouTube channel reveals hundreds of clips where the stigmatisation of female rage is persistent despite being increasingly discussed online. This hypocrisy marginalises women’s voices in the music industry, reflecting how women are treated in society where a lack of agency and misogynistic tropes are promoted by the media. The lack of empathy for women is due to patriarchal biases that fail to acknowledge anger as an important emotional tool, the result a lack of diversity for female voices to be heard and represented in society. The music industry is structured to set women up for failure, to be subjects of severe oversexualisation and dramatisation in the media and on social media.

References  

Gil, N. (2018) Rage Becomes Her: How To Put Your Anger To Good Use. Available at: https:// www.refinery29.com/en-gb/2018/09/209008/ female-anger-rage-becomes-her (Accessed: 09.09.2024).
Solomon. (700 BC) Book of Proverbs.

Roberts, R. (2024) Good For Her: Are we finally realising the power of female rage? Available at: https://www.kerrang.com/good-for-her-are- we-finally-realising-the-power-of-female-rage (Accessed: 09.09.2024).
Dancyger, L. (2019) Burn It Down: Lungs Full of Burning: Leslie Jamison. New York: Seal Press.

The Take. (2021) The Angry Trope and Why She’s Angry. 10 Apr 2021. Available at: https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJaSMX1aYYo (Accessed: 09.09.2024).

Gassam Asare, J. (2022) Overcoming The Angry Black Woman Stereotype. Available at: https:// www.forbes.com/sites/janicegassam/2019/05/31/ overcoming-the-angry-black-woman-stereotype/ (Accessed: 09.09.2024).

Spears, B. (2023) The Woman In Me. New York: Gallery Books.