00:00Hey, I'm Elisa Kreisinger and every Tuesday I unpack my strong opinions with the help
00:05of an expert who might not have all of the answers, but they certainly know more than
00:09I do.
00:10That's why this is Strong Opinions Loosely Held.
00:13This week we're going to tackle a topic that makes me very angry.
00:16It's called Women's Anger.
00:17Wait, sorry.
00:18Studies show that if I'm angry you're not going to take me seriously, so let me calm
00:22down.
00:25This week we're tackling a topic called Women's Anger.
00:28Can women be angry?
00:31Remember when Jennifer Lawrence said that she was referred to as overly emotional and aggressive
00:36when she spoke her mind to a male coworker?
00:39Or when former Yahoo CEO Marissa Meyer's passion for her job was referred to as an absurd obsession
00:45with detail?
00:47Senator Claire McCaskill was called aggressive while she was running for office and Supreme
00:52Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor's work was discredited for being overly heated and
00:58fueled by emotion.
00:59So why has women's anger always been discouraged?
01:03I reached out to one of my favorite authors on anger, Rebecca Tracer, to find out.
01:08We're told that it's unattractive, it's ugly, it's hysterical, it sort of disqualifies us.
01:14If we're angry we're not taken very seriously.
01:17Even, even though our anger may be 100% valid and righteous.
01:21Yes.
01:21Studies show that when women express anger it actually undermines our argument.
01:26And yet when men show anger it's a powerful tool for persuasion.
01:30Rebecca explained that one of the reasons why we're so encouraged to not take women's anger
01:34seriously is because it's actually really, really powerful.
01:38Behind almost every social movement throughout US history has been an angry, furious woman
01:44demanding change.
01:45The history of women's anger in the United States is the history of the United States,
01:48but we're never taught to look at women's anger as a crucial component of that history.
01:54The abolition of slavery, the suffrage movement, the civil rights movement that brought us the
01:58civil rights act and the voting rights act in the 1960s, the women's movement of the
02:0370s, the gay rights movement.
02:05We are never encouraged to consider that at the heart of almost every one of those movements,
02:11and not just those, the labor movements, the temperance movement, were furious women.
02:15If you go back to the beginning of most of the social movements in the United States,
02:20you will find angry women.
02:23And when we're taught about these moments in history, women's anger is never part of the
02:27narrative.
02:27Men's anger definitely is, but women's anger is often left out.
02:33Socially and culturally, we have been taught to appreciate men's aggression and anger as
02:41a signal of their strength, right?
02:43But we're never trained to think of the women who made this kind of catalytic change and who
02:48sparked these movements as angry.
02:51But the impetus there were women who were livid, who were furious, who were politically
02:57angry and took action, both personal and civic, to register their fury.
03:04So that story is a story of women's anger at injustice, and not just the anger,
03:09but the progress it produced.
03:11But what role does race play in this dynamic?
03:14We all know that the stereotype of the angry black woman has been super harmful to black
03:19women.
03:19But where does that fit in?
03:21Black women's rage has been considered exceptionally dangerous, militaristic.
03:26Black women are often characterized as angry, even if they're not particularly angry in that
03:31moment, or they haven't expressed their anger, they are assumed to be angry.
03:35And that caricature is used to further marginalize them.
03:38When you're that and you're giving voice to a disruptive political set of ideas, I think
03:46that that can make people very uncomfortable.
03:48It's also about understanding that if we are newly angry, we're not the first people to
03:55have gotten here.
03:56We are late to this party.
03:57And that is another lesson that, in particular, white women need to really think about.
04:03Because every 50 or 60 years in this country's history, there has been something that has
04:08provoked white women to become angry en masse.
04:11And that's crucial.
04:13It's important.
04:14That should happen.
04:15It should be more consistent.
04:16They shouldn't be put back to sleep.
04:18Not every 50 to 60 years.
04:19Right.
04:19It should be sort of constant.
04:20And it should be in coordination with and in allyship with and following the models and
04:26leadership of women of color who have a lot more to be angry about in many cases, right?
04:31So how do we push against this huge stereotype of women's anger as invalid?
04:36What do we do?
04:38Well, Rebecca suggests that we listen to our own anger and also talk to other women.
04:52Yeah.
04:53Stop discouraging them from saying, oh, you sound so angry.
04:56Don't.
04:56No.
04:57Ask.
04:57Be curious.
04:58Get curious about the fury of the women who are around you every day.
05:02You don't have to wait for the one who's already yelling.
05:04Right.
05:04You can ask the ones who are being quiet and have a smile pasted on their face, right?
05:11That we have to actually work to find out, is this anger I'm feeling?
05:14Is it not sadness or depression or grief?
05:16Is there anger in there too?
05:18And how does that motivate my actions in the world, my civic participation, how I'm going
05:23to participate politically, socially in my workplace?
05:27And so it's about listening to those voices outside of us and inside of us.
05:32This idea of talking to other women might sound overly simple, but because women's anger
05:37is so threatening, it's actually very productive.
05:41That's one of the reasons that we're discouraged from expressing it.
05:44Right.
05:45Because it's so threatening.
05:45Because if we could communicate it with each other, then we might team up.
05:48Right.
05:49Right?
05:50Yeah.
05:50And that's scary.
05:51Yeah.
05:51There's nothing scarier.
05:52Yeah.
05:53Than a bunch of angry, oppressed people, women and men, who, if they talk with each other
05:59about what they're angry about and the injustices that they're facing, might begin to work together
06:03as the oppressed and subjugated majority in this country, to finally alter the terms
06:08of power as they've been set by the minority white male capitalist power.
06:12So the next time you get angry or you see a woman who's angry, resist the urge to label
06:17her crazy or hysterical, look, there is so much to be mad about.
06:21She's just letting it show.
