Anger as a suppressed emotion.
Our last monthly discussion revolved around feminist anger and feminist rage. Rage is a crossing of boundaries, an outburst of anger; a reaction to a suppressed and ignored anger. It often happens on the spot. Anger and rage can both be expressed in very different ways; it can be linked to sadness, grief or frustration. Women are not able to deal with their emotions the same way that men do. They’re seen as peacekeepers and expressing our emotions is seen as invalid. Men’s emotions and reactions will be excused while ours will be diminished; male violence and anger is normalized while women are seen as too emotional and out emotional reactions are not being taken seriously. The patriarchal society tells use what is deemed relevant to be angry about.
We sometimes also have to repress our anger in order to not put ourselves in situations of danger (e.g. reacting to catcalling).
Feminist anger.
We’ve all heard the phrase “oh, she’s one of those angry feminists”, or even the « party pooper » expression. However, anger is not a feeling diminishing the feminist fight, but rather an expression of how tired we are of injustice. The framing of the discussion is based on how we react to such injustices rather than how violent patriarchy can be. A femicide is a violent crime. Rape is a violent crime. Still, our emotions and rage in reaction to these crimes are the focus rather than the problem itself. Our rage is still framed as unnecessary. The framing of such actions is based on the victims’ reactions rather than the perpetrators’ wrongdoing. Therefore, it fails to account for how men should be educated and not be doing this shit in the first place. The way in which feminists are perceived for expressing valid anger obscures the reasons why we feel angry. The feelings that injustice brings up is directly linked to feeling angry. We are seen as incoherent or crazy somehow while the injustices we surfer from are worth fighting against.
Embracing our anger within our feminist fight, within organizations and demonstrations aims to bring us closer as feminists and fuel our activist stands. Whatever we do, and however we fight against patriarchy and misogyny, it feels like we are never being taken seriously, and we can constantly have to explain the reasons for our anger. While out fight keeps being diminished it is important to keep in mind that what we are fighting for is worth fighting for and how activist organizations should be a space for us to grow and learn how to make the feminist fight inclusive and safe. Embracing our rage and anger in our feminist anger can help us be stronger and be more united as activists.
A big thanks to our audience and moderators who made this discussion incredible.
Cheers,
The FCA
