【Belgium】

The Belgiumlist of reasons for women to be angry right now is long. Really long.

When women, especially black women, protest and express their anger, they are written off as hysterical or emotional. Meanwhile, white, privileged men like Brett Kavanaughcan yell before the Senate Judiciary Committee and receive a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court.

President Trump and his administration regularly threaten reproductive rights, undermine protections for sexual assault survivors, attack civil rights, and threaten immigrants, LGBTQ people, Muslims, indigenous people, and other marginalized groups. The cycle of horrible news is overwhelming and seemingly never-ending.

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But good can come from the bad. As Rebecca Traister explains in her new book, Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger, female rage has fueled social and political movements throughout U.S. history.

So with that said, the best thing women can do is embrace their anger during these tumultuous times. Rage, directed by purpose and fairness, can positively transform our politics — and our country.

Whether you're looking for a new favorite fiction book or want to brush up on your feminist credentials, here are nine books to read if you're ready to lean into your rage:

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Fed Up: Emotional Labor, Women, and the Way Forward

By Gemma Hartley 

In her debut book, journalist Gemma Hartley expands upon her viral article “Women Aren’t Nags; We’re Just Fed Up,” and sheds light on the emotional labor women undertake at work, at home, and in everyday life. Not only is the act of anticipating and managing other people's emotions exhausting, but it also limits women's opportunities and fuels gender inequality. Hartley’s suggestion is that we all shift the mental load so that both men and women carry it equitably, and we create a better, more equal world in the process.

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Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger 

By Rebecca Traister

New York Timesbestselling author Rebecca Traister is one of the prominent voices in contemporary conversations about politics and women’s anger. In this book, she cites social movements throughout U.S. history to explore anger’s revolutionary capabilities. Time and time again, men (and some women) have tried to delegitimize and caricature women’s emotions, but Traister wants women to know their rage is not only legitimate but powerful, then and now. 

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Road Map for Revolutionaries: Resistance, Activism and Advocacy for All 

By Elisa Camahort Page, Carolyn Gerin, and Jamia Wilson

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If you’re eager to make a difference but don’t know where to start, this handbook is a must. This step-by-step guide features case studies, checklists, and interviews with people like Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, #BlackLivesMatter founder Patrisse Cullors, and Soledad O'Brien.

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Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women's Anger

By Soraya Chemaly

Chemaly believes that when women learn to harness their anger instead of bottling it up, they can be catalysts for change. However, women must first unlearn the misconception that anger is a bad thing. "We grow up hearing so much that anger is negative and destructive, but in fact it’s the lack of acknowledgement of anger that results in poor outcomes," she told Mashable in September. 

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Nevertheless, We Persisted. 48 Voices of Defiance, Strength, and Courage

Edited by In This Together Media

This collection of essays has all the inspiration and hope you could ever need to counteract how angry you feel after reading the news. The foreword is by Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat, and includes stories from actress Alia Shawkat, actor Maulik Pancholy, poet Azure Antoinette, and teen activist Gavin Grimm, who write about the hardships they've experienced as a result of bias or discrimination. Nevertheless, they persisted. 

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Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower

By Brittney C. Cooper

Brittney Cooper is a writer, public speaker, and an associate professor of women's and gender studies and Africana studies at Rutgers University. For this memoir, she couples her professional experiences with the personal stories of friends and family to explain that yes, black women are angry, and they have every right to be. She also shares her journey to reclaim her rage in light of the "angry black woman" stereotype.

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The Power 

By Naomi Alderman

If you're a fan of The Handmaid's Taleor science fiction, you'll love this book. The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where young women are discovering they have a deadly power best described as an electrical current. With this newfound ability, they channel their rage and fight their oppressors, aka men. It masterfully imagines what might happen if women had all the power. 

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Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

Audre Lorde

Sister Outsideris a collection of 15 essays and speeches that cover sexism, racism, ageism, homophobia, and classism. In two essays, the late, black lesbian poet addresses black women's rage. “The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism,” for example, encourages black women to own their anger. It's a must-read for anyone who identifies as a feminist. 

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A Room of One's Own

Virginia Woolf

In this extended essay, Woolf makes the argument that every female writer must have two things: money and a room of her own. She then uses a fictional character, Judith Shakespeare (William Shakespeare's make-believe sister), to explore the inequality that manifests in the literary world. Meg Wolitzer, author of The Female Persuasion, says she's "inspired and comforted reading [Woolf's] brilliant analysis."  

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