Female Anger

People who speak out against violence against women are often described as ‘angry’. Angry feminists. Women warriors. Over-emotional. Out of control. The emotions of anger and frustration they express are not usually seen as a reasonable response to the injustices routinely experienced disproportionately by the female gender. Righteous indignation is something that is not often seen as relevant today.

 As we write this week’s post, we recognize the Hindu festival of Navratri, which honours female energy in the form of the Goddess (Shakti). One of Her aspects/avatars is that of the Goddess Kali, who is often depicted as exacting retribution against those men who unjustly seek to victimize or disrespect women.

 A greater contrast with the stereotypical image of shy, modest, self-effacing womanhood could not be imagined! Kali though is not simply a destroyer of evil; she is a protective mother figure, is responsible for the death of the illusory ego and can also be a powerhouse of unrestrained female sexuality who cannot be tamed. The fluid thought of Hinduism allows for a blending of several characteristics into one incredible figure, a powerful and all-encompassing femininity beyond the often juxtaposed binaries of the "traditional" soft and the "modern" enraged woman of western thought. 

Kali dancing atop Shiva, by Raja Ravi Varma (before 1906)

 In Western culture, a contemporary sculptor, Luciano Garbati has reimagined Medusa, from the stories of Greek mythology. Medusa was a lady with a beautiful face, but whose hair was made of poisonous snakes in a terrible example of victim blaming by Athena. Medusa was raped by Poseidon in Athena's temple in the poet Ovid's version of a much older myth. People who dared to directly look her in the eye were killed by being turned to stone.

 Why was she so malevolent? So angry? So dangerous?

 Medusa petrified (literally) and terrified men, and in the end, according to the legend, one of them used a mirror to turn her to stone and a sword to kill her. In this portrait of the reversal of that outcome, Medusa is shown with no armour or clothing, holding in one hand the head of her enemy.

 

Medusa with Perseus' head by Luciano Garbati 

This statue will be put up in public in the United States, opposite the County Criminal Courthouse at Collect Pond Park in New York, the very courthouse where Harvey Weinstein was recently convicted of multiple assaults on women.

Anger when justified and channelled with good purpose can be a powerful restoring instrument.

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Resources:

Why a New Statue of Medusa Is So Controversial

KALI – A MOST MISUNDERSTOOD GODDESS

Loving Paradoxes: A Feminist Reclamation of the Goddes Kali

The MWTH Project