Susi Kaplow on Women’s Anger

Why can’t women allow themselves the outlet of their contained anger? Why do those around them find an angry woman so frightening that they must demoralize and deflate her into a degraded, inauthentic calm? Healthy anger says “I’m a person. I have certain human rights which you can’t deny. I have a right to be treated with fairness and compassion. I have a right to live my life as I see fit, I have a right to get what I can for myself without hurting you. And if you deprive me of my rights, I’m not going to thank you, I’m going to say ‘fuck off’ and fight you if I have to.” A person’s anger puts him or her on center stage. It claims attention for itself and demands to be taken seriously, or else. (Or else I won’t talk to you, I won’t work with you or be friendly toward you, or else, ultimately, our association is over.)

Read the rest. It’s short and punchy.

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From “Getting Angry” by Susi Kaplow, in Radical Feminism, edited by Anne Koedt, Ellen Levine, and Anita Rapone (1973, Quadrangle).

Filed under: words from women by Amy's Brain Today