Anger and Little Women

I recently heard a radio adaptation of Louisa M. Alcott’s 'Little Women'. And the message of the last episode I listened to was so revolting that I felt scandalised that so many generations of young women have been subjected to this propaganda about how

how women should behave.

In this particular episode, Jo is being chastised on experiencing a sensation of anger when she has just been seriously wronged. And her mother confides in Jo that she has been suppressing her own temper all her life and the only thing that enabled her to conquer it was marrying her darling husband and having him apply his rational, patient personality to her unruly instincts.

Anger is an important survival instinct. It is part of the basic fight or flight mechanism that we are all born with and which keeps us alive. Women are told that they are not allowed to fight, only to flee.

A sensation of anger is a vital signal that your physical, emotional, intellectual or spiritual personhood is being violated. If you don’t feel angry when you are violated then your boundaries are not well developed enough or have been so systematically broken down that you no longer notice incursions.

Over the centuries women have been institutionally trained into not having boundaries and have not been allowed to have any control over their boundaries. Any female who makes a spirited attempt to defend her personhood at any level has been condemned and shamed by society who have had a vested interest in keeping her in her place – ie submissive, obedient, self-sacrificial and passively accepting of her lot.

Anger is your psyche’s burglar alarm. Pay attention to it.

(Image from Pixabay by Shima Abedinzade)