Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women's Anger

by Soraya Chemaly

Everyone seemed to expect her to put aside decades of hurt, hypocrisy, and humiliation and be a silent, loving, selfless nursemaid. She was considered mean spirited, hard, miserly, and uncaring.

Her anger was essential to her survival. Where my father and uncles saw a penny-pincher, I saw a smart and pragmatic woman who understood her financial situation and was trying to plan for the future. Where they saw unreasonable, I saw a woman who knew she was playing a long game and would do what she had to, even if others failed to understand. Where they saw selfishness, I saw her insistence that she mattered as an individual, not as an eternal handmaiden.

Your anger is a gift you give to yourself and the world that is yours. In anger, I have lived more fully, freely, intensely, sensitively, and politically. If ever there was a time not to silence yourself, to channel your anger into healthy places and choices, this is it.