Hillary Clinton is finally mad. Or at least she’s expressing the anger which has fueled marches and aggressive Facebook updates in her post-election memoir What Happened. It’s because of this, Hillary is getting some criticism. Hillary is getting angry the same way her opponents would each time they go up the podium while she remained composed and people aren’t happy. Some have gone on to say that she’s whining.
Let’s take it down to a more relatable level, shall we?
You mean to tell me that Hillary Clinton is going to be called irrational for getting angry at the misogynist, name-calling, climate change denier of a Cheeto-in-Chief? That’s it. Women can’t get angry and be taken seriously about it. They cannot express fiery emotion without being put at risk of being called irrational. It’s an age-old misogynistic tool that we ought to set in flames.
The mindset of women who are denied their right to get mad starts early. Little girls are taught to be meek, to stay at home, to be soft-spoken. A high school etiquette handbook we were required to read went so far as to say raising your voice slightly is not proper.
Women are expected to temper their anger, while men are encouraged to use it as a tool. In the workforce, women are subjected to terms like “b*tch” and “bossy” when they exercise the slightest indication of a strong emotion. Men who do the same thing are considered just normal behavior.
There’s not a day that passes by that women don’t get a simplistic and condescending, “Are you on your period?” Advice to men out there: If you ask that, you’re just bound to make women angrier and you’re being an archaic fool. Look up what menstruation is. Research more about hormones, which by the way, you have too. Also, news flash, hormones also control men’s emotions. So think twice before you say “You’re getting so hormonal.”
Denying women their right, their anger is also silencing them. It’s the same silence imposed on them which makes it difficult for rape and domestic abuse victims to speak up. They should be angry but instead they’re told to hush up because they will ruin their abuser’s life.
When women express strong emotions, there’s an impulse to not listen but to correct them in the way they express themselves also. Think about how men are tolerated when they go off in expletives and their points are engaged in conversation. Why is it in women, the first instinct is to ask if it’s even proper for a women to express herself in such a manner. That double standard has got to go. It’s also where a lot of micro transgressions stem from. Just recall the colloquial “Kababae mong tao” to women who are fighting for what is right is just treated like a mad woman.
If not for Hillary, then at least for women in general, let go of the notion that women should be meek and slow to anger. For everything that is happening in the world, women are angry. And that’s what you have to deal with. We’re angry and we’re doing something about it. It’s time to listen to what gets them fired up.
Art by Lara Intong
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