Female Rage

Submission 4,245

Part of a series on Catchphrases. [View Related Entries]

About

Female Rage is a catchphrase often used to describe the depiction of angry and dangerous women in film. In the late 2010s and early 2020s, various films depicting angry or distraught women became prominent subjects of TikTok edits and fan cams, with Zendaya's character from Euphoria and Mia Goth's characters in the A24 films Pearl and X being prevalent features of such content. Other popular female rage icons include Florence Pugh's character in Midsommar and Margot Robbie in I, Tonya.

Origin

The phrase "female rage" has steadily become popularized over the past two decades, with several 2017 think pieces using the phrasing in the aftermath of the #MeToo movement.^[1]^[2] After the year 2017, various film critics noted the popularity of characters that depicted angry, unstable and dangerous women in cinema. Fleabag star Phoebe Waller-Bridge noted her interest in "female rage" as a concept in film in a 2018 Vogue interview.^[3] An October 11th, 2022, BBC article by Miriam Balanescu calls characters that depict female rage "brutal new icons" of film and TV.^[4] A February 2nd, 2023, article by Megan Nolan notes the fetishization of such rage as depicted by beautiful and often white women in film and pop culture.^[5]

Early content about "female rage" as depicted in films and movies took the form of TikTok slideshows in August 2022.^[6]^[7] On September 3rd, 2022, TikToker^[8] @synergy4u posted a female rage edit that gathered over 160,000 plays and 40,000 likes in five months (seen below, left). Also on September 3rd, TikToker^[9] @butterflym4dness posted a female rage edit that gathered over 200,000 plays and 40,000 likes in five months (seen below, right).

Spread

On September 12th, 2022, TikToker^[10] @slvtherinh posted a female rage edit that gathered over 1.7 million plays and 500,000 likes in five months (seen below, left). On November 8th, TikToker^[11] @youareinmyveins.youfuck posted a female rage edit as well, gathering over 1.2 million plays and 200,000 likes in three months (seen below, right).

On November 9th, 2022, TikToker^[12] @daisy..png posted a female rage edit that gathered over 1.8 million plays and 240,000 likes in three months (seen below, left). On November 9th, TikToker^[13] @lunaflm posted a female rage edit as well, gathering nearly 200,000 plays and over 40,000 likes in a similar timeframe (seen below, right).