Seeing a female actor break down in a film is often exhilarating. Historically, on-screen depictions of female rage were relegated to one-dimensional portrayals of hysteria, the “crazy ex-girlfriend,” or as the backstory for a female villain. Women couldn’t express anger without penalty.
Over the past few decades, however, and particularly over the past few years, we’ve begun to see a shift. Female rage is no longer a one-dimensional concept. Rather, female rage has become multifaceted. It’s both compelling and powerful, and if I’m being honest, there’s something deeply validating about watching it unfold.
Here are a few of my favorite depictions of female rage in film!
Amy Dunne in Gone Girl
Amy is portrayed as someone who’s been suppressed, exposed to double standards, and treated as a pawn; she’s far from being a passive victim or a woman in distress.
In fact, Amy is built on rage, and she embodies everything that women can’t show themselves to be: frustrated. Her rage, however, has been built over years of suppressing her need to be a man’s version of what they want. Her final act of anger, her explosion, is calculated and brutal.
What creates discomfort about Amy is her need to control her own feelings as opposed to just expressing them, as most women are taught to do. She highlights how women are expected to conform and look good, to remain desirable, and what happens when they refuse to do so.
Nina Sayers in Black Swan
Another example of this kind of experience is Nina Sayers from Black Swan, played by Natalie Portman. Nina embodies the internalized rage she feels because of her unrealistic expectations (being perfect, meeting maternal expectations, and fulfilling both the childlike/innocent, and the sexual/seductive part of herself).
Nina’s rage doesn’t explosively manifest itself, but rather in a disintegration of self. The audience feels suffocated by Nina’s disintegration because it realistically represents her feeling pressures they also feel (to be perfect while feeling as though she’s falling apart inside).
Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis in Thelma & Louise
Before “Female rage” was a term found on TikTok, we had Thelma & Louise, which gave us rebellion on an open highway. After a traumatic experience, Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis struggle to overcome their fear and find peace.
Eventually, the characters turn their collective anger into a desire for freedom, with all its messy, chaotic, and unapologetic consequences.
At the end of the film, the reason for their rebellion continues to be revolutionary; they didn’t just run away from something; they refused to allow themselves to be trapped by the same society that’s always treated them wrongly.
Dani Ardor in Midsommar
In Midsommar, Dani Ardor presents us with a different kind of rage. As played by Florence Pugh, Dani is full of vulnerability after losing her family and being seen as “too much” by the man in her life.
Dani’s inner rage radiates from beneath the beautiful sunlight and flower crowns, but when it’s finally released, it’s both disturbing and cathartic. After all the suffering she’s endured due to others minimizing her pain, she finally finds relief.
Evelyn Wang in Everything Everywhere All at Once
Michelle Yeoh’s character, Evelyn Wang, in Everything Everywhere All at Once, expresses a chaotic and complex form of anger that’s frustrated because of financial instability, familial issues from the past, and difficulties finding common ground with her daughter, which manifests throughout various dimensions of existence.
Although this anger is extremely strong, it’s very much part of human nature, and that’s where its true power lies, as it gradually changes from an emotion expressed with the intent to destroy anything and everything, to an emotion of compassion and harmony.
Evelyn’s experiences teach us that anger can bring people together rather than serve as weapons of destruction.
Katherine Goble Johnson in Hidden Figures
Katherine Goble Johnson, in Hidden Figures, portrayed by the wonderful Taraji P. Henson, has the same type of distressed anger. However, her expression of anger is much more vocal and expressive, but equal in terms of being real and recognized.
Katherine is an African-American woman who worked at NASA during a segregated time, where she had to run across campus to use the “colored” public restroom. She ultimately had to express her frustrations about her less-than-deserving treatment as an employee to her fellow cohort members. Katherine channeled that anger to do an extraordinary job with the calculations necessary to help astronaut John Glenn orbit the Earth.
The way we convey female rage on screen matters because it mirrors something real. Anger isn’t always ugly and loud. Sometimes it’s clarity. Sometimes it’s grief, sometimes it’s the moments when you realize you deserve better.
Watching these women snap, whether it’s quietly or catastrophically, feels less like chaos and more like recognition. It feels like we are witnessing something we can relate to, and it makes us remember those moments long after they happen.
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