Why Is Female Rage Having A Moment Right Now?

Taylor Swift just dedicated a section of her global Eras Tour to her newest album, The Tortured Poets Department – or as she herself dubbed it, “Female Rage: The Musical.” Unlike Swift’s left hand, that phrase has a nice ring to it, so she applied to trademark it as her own. This clever business move is the latest evidence to suggest that female rage is about to dominate the zeitgeist. Later this month, Anya Taylor-Joy is set to star in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga . During a recent interview with The New York Times , she offered what could be a striking insight into the current collective female psyche: “I am a really strong advocate of female rage. We’re animals, and there’s a point where somebody just snaps.” Female Rage and Rage Rituals Something is very wrong, and women want to scream it from the rooftops – or, perhaps, the treetops. “Rage rituals ” are the premiere wellness trend among wealthy white women. These rituals tend to be conducted in the great outdoors, granting new meaning to the old philosophical brain-twister, "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" If a woman screams in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does she make a sound? If she records it and posts it to TikTok , she sure did. As part of the rage ritual, paying participants scream and can even hit the ground with large sticks. This may appear to be an expression of impotent rage from some of the most materially privileged women to have ever walked the earth. But I urge you to consider that some of those same exact women believe it’s an outlet to awaken their primal warrior spirit! “Damn. This is powerful. I believe we, collectively, as women, have so much ancestral and personal rage built up over all we’ve had to endure,” said one commenter on TikTok. The best part is that any woman reading this can sign up to participate in one of these rituals and let it all out – but only if you can part ways with a few thousand dollars. Take note that all the examples mentioned above are attaching “female rage” to products for women to purchase. There is nothing so sacred about the female experience that it will remain walled off from some person or entity looking to make a profit – not even pregnancy and birth, as ethical debates around surrogacy rage on. Whether it’s an album, a movie, a vacation, or the upcoming Female Rage Barbie (okay, that one was a joke), the 21st-century woman can now expect her own misery and rage, however justified, to be repackaged and sold back to her in shiny new colors. Maybe, subconsciously, that’s part of why women are so angry in the first place. What Are Women So Mad About? Why is female rage demanding a cultural moment right now? What, or who, are women so mad at? I’ll pin the tail on the donkey: Wealthy Western societies have fallen into despair and disarray. The welfare state has failed hopelessly at providing women’s primal needs for safety, resources, and predictability. To make matters much worse, it seems we’ve disempowered the very men who, in a bygone era, could have stepped in to strong-arm things back into place. We’re in quite a pickle. But I fail to see how the solution consists of listening to breakup songs, re-watching the America Ferrera monologue from Barbie , and polluting the environment with blood-curdling screams. I’ll echo Unherd contributor Mary Harrington and argue that it’s time for the dreaded Karen archetype to reemerge. “What in the world has happened to customer service in America? Y’all decided to be mean to these ladies,” points out X user Indian Bronson. “These ladies” are Karens. For years, Karens were unfairly chastised and sent into hiding – not over their silly haircuts, but because they held society to basic standards of decency, cleanliness, and order. Karen ran this ship like the Navy, and even if you never thanked her for her service, you benefitted indirectly from her willingness to cause a scene. Female rage found a perfectly appropriate outlet in the Karen (more affectionately titled the Mama Bear). “It costs zero dollars to be a nice person,” chime thousands of notoriously toxic online leftists. Well, I say that it costs zero dollars to be a Karen, and any woman reading this should try it out the next time customer service isn’t up to snuff and, most importantly, when a child is in need of protection. Don’t buy the corporatized product of female rage – embody it. Evie deserves to be heard. Support our cause and help women reclaim their femininity by subscribing today.