In other examples of enraged women in a domestic space, there is sometimes comedic collateral damage. In Season 1 of “Dead to Me,” Jen, a widowed mother with an attitude problem, takes out her anger at her mother-in-law by smashing the cake she was given for the memorial of Jen’s late husband. In “Mad Men,” Betty Draper, a 1960s housewife caught in a marriage of grudges and deceit, stands in her garden in her peach-colored nightgown, holding a rifle to the sky. With every bend of a manicured pink-nail-polished finger, she darts at birds as a horrified neighbor watches and calls out to her in horror; she continues firing as a cigarette dangles from her mouth.
A woman’s anger can be heroic – whether you’re a Hulk or Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter), smashing walls during an anger management class. It can be a barometer of what has gone horribly wrong in a world that takes women for granted. Think of the furious faces of Elisabeth Moss as Offred in the misogynistic dystopia of “The Handmaid’s Tale”; or the anger of the ill-fated football players in “Yellowjackets”; or the magically gifted young women in “The Power,” who sometimes use their abilities for self-defense or revenge.
A woman can be furious about privilege, like Renata Klein (Laura Dern), the reputation- and money-obsessed mom in “Big Little Lies,” or about violent passion, like Dre (Dominique Fishback), the killer stan from “Swarm.” In many cases, anger can be a last resort, a way for a woman to finally get what she desperately desires: catharsis, revenge, justice, peace. Whether that satisfaction lasts, however, is a completely different story.
These scenes and storylines are not about the anger itself, but rather what drove a woman to speak, to act, to defend herself and others, to have the autonomy to express an unpalatable emotion. Being unattractive and merciless. Because sometimes, to change her world – for better or for worse – all a woman has to do is open her mouth and let out a cruel, unbridled scream.
Image Credits: “Fleishman’s in Trouble” (FX); “She-Hulk: Lawyer” (Marvel Studios/Disney+); “Aggretsuko” (Netflix); “The Handmaid’s Tale” (Hulu); “Yellow Jackets” (show time); “Yellow Jackets” (show time); “Medusa”, 1597 (Caravaggio, Galleria degli Ufizzi, Florence); “Yellow Jackets” (show time); “Beef” (Netflix); “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” (Marvel Studios); “Jessica Jones” (Netflix); “Blindspotting” (Starz); “Dead to Me” (Netflix); “The Force” (Amazon Prime Video); “Swarm” (Amazon Prime Video); “Big Little Lies” (HBO); “Mad Men” (AMC).
