I’ve been called an “angry woman” more times than I can recall. One man once asked why I had to be “so angry” about feminism. My response was simple: of course I’m angry. The real question is why aren’t you?
The word “hysteria” originates from the ancient Greek “hystera”, meaning uterus. For centuries, male physicians attributed women’s emotional outbursts to a “wandering uterus” moving around the body, with marriage or pregnancy prescribed as a cure. This history underscores how women’s anger has been pathologised.
Today, there is much to fuel that anger. Women are losing bodily autonomy in the US, with abortion and contraception rights under threat, and similar risks in the UK if Reform UK gains influence, given its pronatalist agenda and emphasis on “traditional family values”. In Afghanistan, girls as young as nine are being married off by the Taliban. Violence against women and girls affects one in three globally, yet the UK’s foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, must place women at the centre of foreign policy to help them live “free from fear”. The Epstein files have also revealed how powerful men treated young women as disposable.
Anger can be a catalyst for change. It galvanised half a million people to march against the far‑right recently. I’ve channelled my fury into a collective of over 70 female‑identifying and non‑binary playwrights and artists called ALL THE RAGE. We have written a theatrical response to the Epstein files, performed at Theatre Deli in London from 11–13 June. My contribution is a poem for a “Letter to My Younger Self” space. The production confronts institutional silence and misogyny.
If you’re angry too, I understand. The challenge is what to do with that rage. It can be a powerful fuel for action.
