Can the Subaltern Only Scream?: Female Rage and the Question of Catharsis

October 17, 2023

Learning Outcomes:

To understand how anger as an emotion is subject to gender constructs and perceived differently between men and women.
To examine how this reflects in the portrayal of women’s rage on screen and precisely what makes it subversive from patriarchal norms.
To question the aptness and utility of ‘female rage’ both in cinema and real-life feminist discourse.

Introduction

In recent years, the loud and violent outburst of the angry woman on screen has become a surprising part and parcel of both contemporary cinema and our social media feeds. An increasing number of users string together images of Taraji Henson in Hidden Figures (2016) screaming out how she works “like a dog day and night, living on coffee from a pot none of you wants to touch!” and Florence Pugh in Don’t Worry Darling (2022), declaring to the audience that “it was her life, her life!” and a striking yet determinant Tapsee Pannu standing up to her husband’s abuse in Thappad (2020), we are witnessing the modern manifestation of the female rage unleashed.

Credits: Sukriti Ranjan, Graphics Intern at Mandonna

This explicit depiction of women’s anger on screen is perhaps par for the course with the rise in the number of films directed by women, nearly doubling from 9% in 1998 to 18% in 2022, according to a study published by the Centre for the Study of Women in Television and Film, San Diego State University. This promising, albeit far-below-the-mark trend has resulted in female characters being treated with much-deserved nuance and complexity, which in turn has led to their more realistic portrayal. Breaking free from the objectification and sexualisation by and for male audiences, the modern female character does not express her anger to indulge in some revenge fantasy trope that ultimately centres male violence and voyeuristic brutality, but to express her frustrations with the patriarchal system that has silenced her for so long. In this context, anger is a fundamentally gendered emotion. Female rage, by extension, is inseparable from the function of catharsis it plays for certain genders under patriarchy.

Gendering Anger as a Perceived Emotion

Any discussion on female rage then must begin with a careful examination of how anger is perceived across the gender spectrum and the manner in which these perceptions rely on expectations of civility and modesty imposed on various social groups. There exists a traditional conception (or, more accurately, a misconception) that men are naturally angrier beings than women. The emotional gender divide identifies anger with masculinity and often reinforces this ideal right from childhood in the way young girls are disciplined more harshly and taught to be polite, while young boys are often let off the hook for displaying far more aggressive behaviour (Chemaly 2019). Perhaps a classic example of this from pop culture and media is Bollywood actress Alia Bhatt’s recent confession on how she has to “try very hard to control (her) anger because (her) husband does not like (it) when (her) voice goes above this decibel”. There exists an unfair expectation on women to keep quiet for the sake of “modesty,” “honour” or a thousand different scapegoats.

Dr. Ryan Martin, professor and researcher specialising in the psychological study of anger and author of Why We Get Mad: How to Use Your Anger for Positive Change, draws the crucial distinction between anger and aggression in this regard. He explains, “Men tend to express their anger in outwardly aggressive ways more often than women do, but research shows that all genders experience anger at similar rates”. A study published in The International Journal of Indian Psychology corroborates this hypothesis by demonstrating that female participants tended to “direct their anger in” while “males direct their anger outward” among the 50 subjects tested in total. Significantly, the author thus concludes that “these results implicate a role of social learning in the expression of anger” (Suman 2016).’

In fact, our perception of different people’s aggression is shaped not only by their gender but by their other social identities as well. Hence, studies reveal how in Western countries, such as the US, the notion of white hegemonic masculinity legitimises white men’s anger, while black and minority men become susceptible to police brutality when involved in public displays of aggression. This intersection of identities is perhaps best summed up in the words of Soraya Chemaly, author of Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women’s Anger, when she says, “Anger’s entanglement with masculinity, to assert power or control, is a patriarchal entitlement routinely denied to subaltern men who, on the basis of race, ethnicity or class, are effectively “feminised” as a way to oppress them”.

Legitimizing Characters’ Anger on Screen

Indeed, this performance of anger and masculinity is reflected in how audiences perceive and readily accept certain characters’ anger on screen. So, while film industries have constructed entire genres reliant on the machismo of male leads (the Hollywood western and Bollywood’s ‘angry young man’), women’s anger has either been entirely absent from the silver screen or has had to struggle for sources of legitimization that subsume their wrath within what patriarchy deems women’s values and motivations ought to be.

Miriam Balanescu has provided a stellar and thorough examination in this regard as she traces the cinematic depiction of women’s anger, specifically of the violent kind, from film noir’s femme fatales to female heroines whose anger is legitimised as “sexualised, hyper-personal revenge in response to rape or loss of a child”. In an interview with Dr. Lisa Coulthard, professor of film studies at the University of British Columbia, the latter reveals how films such as Kill Bill (2003) thus “feminise” violence so as to align it with “stereotyped notions of female purity, emotionalism and ties to child-rearing”. In other cases, such as the 1970s horror slasher genre, female anger is legitimised yet again within the confines of patriarchy by ensuring that in films such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), Halloween (1978), and Scream (1999), it is the “virginal and virtuous” woman who emerges as the sole survivor, while her friends “are punished with death for their sexuality” (Balanescu 2022).

Certain pieces of media that have subverted this norm have also chosen to actively engage with and create a narrative self-awareness around the gendered understanding of rage. Thus, Rosamund Pike’s Amy Dunne in Gone Girl (2014), based on the highly successful thriller novel by Gillian Flynn, assures that “cool girls never get angry; they only smile in a chagrined, loving manner and let their men do whatever they want,” she presents the docile image of the ideal woman who conforms to the expectations placed upon her and suppresses her anger for the sake of her romantic partner or fear of social repercussions.

This iconic ‘cool girl monologue,’ which has secured a definite place within the female rage arsenal on social media over the years, continues to reveal one of the most common manifestations of women’s anger in film and society.

Pike’s character confesses how “for a long time, Cool Girl offended me… And the Cool Girls are even more pathetic: They’re not even pretending to be the woman they want to be; they’re pretending to be the woman a man wants them to be”. In a similar fashion, we often see how, rather than directing their anger towards the immediate male or systematic patriarchal cause, women relegate their frustrations towards fellow women for ‘out-beating’ them in a competition that was never designed for either to win. When Mia Goth’s socially outcast and satirically violent Pearl laments to her more conventionally attractive sister-in-law Mitzy, “Do people like you ever feel this way? Figure you don’t… You seem so perfect all the time. Lord must have been generous to you. He never answers any of my prayers,” she says, unveiling the heartache and failure of womanhood that lie beneath her rage.

Indeed, it would not be a great stretch of the imagination to perhaps suggest a connection between the ‘pick-me’ and ‘not like other girls’ phenomena and female rage. Patriarchy wrongs women in myriad ways, resulting in their systemic subjugation and gender-based trauma. When one woman decides to give into societal standards and engage in ‘competition’ with other women, and when another decides to scream out her frustrations in anger, these are both emotional outlets originating in the same feeling of injustice.

Articulating Anger in Feminist Discourse

This brings us to the question of the articulation of anger and the functionality of female rage on screen and in real life. As Chemaly puts it aptly, “Anger is most commonly associated with power for and by men and with powerlessness for and by women”. How far does female rage cause ripples in the social fabric of patriarchy? Does its on-screen portrayal and public manifestation serve any purpose beyond giving mere room for women’s emotional catharsis? Indeed, the idea of catharsis itself suggests an act of ‘letting go’ and ‘moving on.’ How far is that possible when the root cause of patriarchal injustice remains unresolved and women’s rageful outbursts constitute little beyond screams into the void?

Srinivasan discusses this and more in her seminal essay ‘The Aptness of Anger,’ where she deconstructs the idea that marginalised groups ought not to get angry but rather maintain their calm in order to engage in civil dialogue on the matter of their oppression. She labels this a form of “affective injustice,” which “neglects the possibility that anger might be counterproductive yet apt” (Srinivasan 2017). This argument fundamentally politicises anger in the context of feminist discourse as it unearths the aptness of female rage as a “fitting response to the way the world is”. The functionality of female rage is thus not limited to the effects or changes it must bring about in the system but extends to how it must expose gender injustice on screen as well as on the streets. The rallying cries of feminist activists must subvert patriarchal norms just as much as the screams of strong female characters in cinema must do so. Indeed, as long as the subaltern can’t speak, it must continue to shout.

References

Balanescu, Miriam. 2022. Female rage: The brutal new icons of film and TV. 10 12. https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20221011-female-rage-the-brutal-new-icons-of-film-and-tv.
Cappelle, Alice. 2023. Why female rage is here to stay. 01 24. https://youtu.be/q7Vh9nDNBi0.
Chemaly, Soraya. 2019. How women and minorities are claiming their right to rage. 05 11. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/may/11/women-and-minorities-claiming-right-to-rage.
Choudhury, Aradhana. 2022. Women’s Anger On Screen: Looking At Female Rage Through The Female Gaze. 06 28. https://feminisminindia.com/2022/06/28/womens-anger-on-screen-female-rage-through-the-female-gaze/.
Devlin, Hannah. 2019. Science of anger: how gender, age and personality shape this emotion. 05 12. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/may/12/science-of-anger-gender-age-personality.
Martin, Ryan. 2021. Are Men Angrier Than Women? 06 10. https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/all-the-rage/202106/are-men-angrier-women.
The Express Tribune. 2023. Ranbir Doesn’t Like It If I Raise My Voice: Alia Bhatt on Husband’s Temperament. May 9. https://tribune.com.pk/story/2415814/ranbir-doesnt-like-it-if-i-raise-my-voice-above-this-decibel-alia-bhatt-on-husbands-temperament.
Srinivasan, Amia. 2017. “The Aptness of Anger.” Journal of Political Philosophy.
Suman. 2016. “Anger Expression: A Study on Gender Differences.” The International Journal of Indian Psychology Volume 3, Issue 4.

Authorship Credits

Sanika is a second-year undergraduate majoring in political science at Miranda House, University of Delhi. An intersectional feminist, she’s passionate about media, politics, gender and social advocacy. Prone to ranting about her interests, she’s also a certified film-bro and part-time student journalist.

Editing Credits

Pavani is a third-year student of political science at Lady Shri Ram College for Women. Her areas of interest include peace and conflict, gender, and foreign policy. Being an editor at Mandonna allows her to expand her horizons, dig deep into the intersection of politics and gender, and have fruitful conversations with people on diverse issues.