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I am an Angry Woman and proud of it. By outing myself,
I’m jeopardizing my career—when women express anger at
work, they lose status and wages and are viewed as less com-
petent, research has found. I also risk coming of as unlik-
able, a scold, and unhinged. And I can expect even more
men to tell me to smile.
But after reading Rebecca Traister’s
Good and Mad: The
Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger
(Simon & Schuster,
$27), I’m convinced that the beneits of publicly owning my
feelings outweigh all that. And, no matter
your gender, you should feel that way, too.
The book is largely an aggregation of
rage from the past two years, from the
2016 election through MeToo up to the
midterm races happening right now.
History has a habit of erasing female
anger, Traister argues. Fuming-hot ire is
the necessary and righteous fuel for ignit-
ing radical social change: It drove the suf-
fragists, labor organizers, second-wave
feminists, and civil rights activists to push
for the right to vote, humane working con-
ditions, reproductive freedoms, and racial equality under
the law.
But when we think of Rosa Parks or Susan B. Anthony,
we think of gentle, smiling folk heroes in soft focus. Their
anger and others’ is diminished, negated, or, even worse,
demonized, despite its often necessary role in furthering
positive change. That damping keeps the power of female
anger in check, because we’ve seen what happens when it
gets out of control—massive, disruptive social revolutions.
“It had become clear that I needed to work swiftly to cap-
ture this rebellion before its sharp, spiky contours got ret-
roactively smoothed and lattened by time,” Traister writes.
And she’s right. That softening has already started to hap-
pen. Traister reminded me of many of the moments of dis-
gust I’ve had over the past two years, which had receded
into the depths of my brain to make room for more press-
ing infuriating things. She reminded me about powerful men
in my own industry who harassed women out of their jobs
and careers. She reminded me about the avalanche of sexist
remarks male pundits made about female politicians during
the election and after. And she reminded me that some of
those same men also, allegedly, harassed women at work.
ILLUSTRATION BY TARA BOOTH
CRITIC
Bloomberg Pursuits
October 8, 2018
Reading about those moments was physically enraging,
and that’s the point. Traister wants women to hold on to
the feelings of the past two years and not feel shame. Our
anger has already led to positive change: MeToo has forced
companies to oust harassers and take a look at their policies
and cultures, and a record number of women are running
for oice and winning their primaries. Our anger has been
a force for good. “The task,” she writes, “is to keep going.”
Women are often told the contrary. Study after study
has found that men are admired for their
anger, while women, especially women
of color, are seen as “out of control.” We
saw this play out in early September when
Serena Williams got chastised and ined
for expressing herself during the U.S.
Open. Or think about how Kamala Harris
was called “hysterical” after she ques-
tioned Jef Sessions on the Trump-Russia
investigation. For many women, this dou-
ble standard is a regular occurrence.
But Traister knows that not all women
have the privilege of openly expressing
their anger. Just look at Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. Her testi-
mony in front of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary
was a case study in female composure. At times she was
outright apologetic, even as she described her alleged sex-
ual assault. Contrast that with Brett Kavanaugh, the U.S.
Supreme Court nominee, who yelled and got visibly upset in
his almost hourlong opening remarks. Traister spends a lot
of the book analyzing incidents like that—the ways women
contort themselves to avoid showing their true feelings. Or
more often, the times women get angry.
Ultimately there isn’t a satisfying answer for what women
should do in these impossible situations. For some, their
anger will hurt them. Black women, studies have found,
are particularly penalized and at risk of gross stereotyp-
ing. Some women have already lost their jobs for protest-
ing the president.
Traister doesn’t encourage her readers to get openly
angry. But she’s optimistic that if more people take female
rage seriously, things can change. For men, that means
honoring female anger just as much as we honor the anger
of disafected men. For women, it means honoring other
women’s anger and, most important, your own.
Mad as Hell
A new book on female rage is a call to arms for women who aren’t
going to take it anymore.
By RebeccaGreenfield