Who runs the world? Girls! This week, Sticky Rice spotlights some of the special women that we have had the honor of learning from. Globally recognized as International Women’s Day, March 8th is an important day to honor strong women throughout history, and our lives. Our Peace Corps Thailand volunteers have written small articles highlighting women in their lives with a tremendous impact. We’d love to hear about influential women in your life as well, tell us in the comments!
Emily Hoffmeister, 135 YinD
I am so honored to be part of the culture and community of Womanhood. I have been raised by so many strong female figures, and have come to find great comfort in the universal language of girlhood.
However, this Women’s Day, I found myself angry. Angry at my country, for the way progress in women’s rights is being unraveled. Angry at the world, for women’s suffrage has always been a global issue, spanning continents and taking many different, ugly forms. Angry at the people who continue to ignore these conversations, despite the growing relevance within their frame of reality.
In my frustration, I turn to two critical texts that shaped how I deal with my indignation towards the suffering of women, and have provided insight into how to move forward. These passages are: The Uses of Anger by Audre Lorde and A Note on Anger from The Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory by Marilyn Frye. These works highlight why anger is important; why it must be heard, acknowledged, and used as a tool for power and change. I hope to share these texts with anyone who is feeling enraged and looking for a touchstone in the current madness – and to encourage those hiding behind their inaction to engage.
The Uses of Anger – Audre Lorde
“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.” – Aurde Lorde
This piece was first delivered at UCONN, Storrs in 1981, addressing the National Women’s Studies Association conference topic of “Women Responding to Racism”.
Lorde’s response to racism was anger. Anger is a common thread all women share towards different faces of oppression. Lorde urges us to understand that being angry is not enough; we must be willing to speak our anger out loud so it can become a catalyst for change. This level of honesty can be intimidating to many, as it requires us to call out our complicity with different levels of oppression. But guilt is not a productive response – it is often a reaction to one’s lack of action. Fear of anger seduces us into settling for a system that profits from our silence.
Now is not the time for complacency. Now is the time to channel our anger into action.
The Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory – Marilyn Frye (A Note on Anger)
“For any woman to presuppose any such thing of herself is at best potentially problematic and at worst incomprehensible in the world of male supremacy… A man’s concept of Woman and of Man, and his understanding of what sorts of relations and connections are possible between beings of these sorts, to a great extent determine the range of his capacity to comprehend these claims, and hence of his capacity to give uptake to women’s anger.” – Marilyn Frye
Published in 1983, The Politics of Reality is a collection of feminist essays by philosopher Marilyn Frye. In A Note on Anger, Frye dissects the nature of anger and its relationship to social oppression. She notes that anger, when expressed by men, is often seen as a legitimate declaration of agency. But when it comes from women, it is dismissed, leading to exclusion and disengagement.
Anger, according to Frye, arises from a sense of disrespect, from the experience of being wronged. To be ‘wronged’, one must assume a correct expectation and claim. These claims can be made beyond physical items, people, or projects; they extend into what Frye calls domains – our sense of well-being, freedom, confidence, knowledge, and skills.
To be angry is to claim a domain worthy of respect.
Frye also draws from philosopher J.L. Austin’s theory of speech acts, which examines how language functions in social interactions. Anger, she argues, often reveals hidden biases in how people choose to engage—or refuse to engage—with women’s claims for respect. The way men and society react to women’s anger exposes the constraints of their understanding of women’s place in the world.
Moving Forward
My hope is that we can all find our own voices, and share them. Share them in a space that allows for receptive hearing and welcomed understanding. We all have a right to claim our personhood and belonging in this world. Within us lies a powerful tool for resistance, transformation, and justice.
Furthermore, I refuse to let women’s history be forgotten under new leadership. I recognize that these two texts emerged from second-wave feminism, and while much has changed since then, their messages remain an essential reference. I hope this month we all celebrate the beauty of womanhood and rejoice in the road that has already been paved for us. Yet, let us not forget the strength and determination it took to achieve these feats — let us not be passive observers at its erosion.
Sticky Rice 
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