Warning: This review contains spoilers.
It’s no secret that Hollywood has struggled to write decent female protagonists since its conception, let alone characters, on both the silver and small screens.
In cinema’s formative years, women were encouraged to stay away from production, as it was seen as inappropriate by social norms and religion. Eventually, actresses graced the screen, but rarely played a variety of roles; classic roles cut out for women were damsels in distress, crazy ex-girlfriends, evil stepsisters (especially emphasized by Disney) and over-the-top sultry femme fatales. Female characters were often designed to further the lead male’s story arc and had little agency of their own.
Recently, there has been a noticeable improvement in female inclusion and representation. One particular development is inclusively addressing feminine rage.
In modern society, women are discouraged from expressing their opinions and disagreements. Opinionated women tend to be labeled as “too angry,” “too loud,” “obnoxious” and “suffocating.” Women who stray from traditional gender norms often suffer for it in some way, whether in their relationships, careers or personal lives. Besides that, women are usually generalized as being “too complicated,” often criticized for being too messy and emotional to be as well-written as male characters, according to the filmographies of Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan and Michael Bay.
When asked if he would attempt to broaden gender portrayals in his films, Scorsese said: “But you know what, I’m 76 now. How am I going to have the time? I don’t know what’s going to happen. We don’t know. I don’t have time anymore.”
This implies that extra effort is required to assign a woman to a production than a man, regardless of the story concept.
Michael Bay is arguably most known for his work with the “Transformers” franchise. The leading female protagonist, Mikaela Barnes (Megan Fox), is sexualized left and right by humans and, yes, even Decepticons throughout the first two installments .
“Oppenheimer” (2023) is one of Nolan’s most celebrated films. Instead of including the women historically associated with the Manhattan Project, the two main women, Oppenheimer’s wife, Kitty (Emily Blunt), and his alleged communist mistress, Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh), serve to enhance Oppenheimer’s (Cillian Murphy) story. While the movie centers on Oppenheimer synthesizing the atomic bomb, it also delves into his affair with Jean, whose scenes are predominantly sexual and ultimately suicidal, intended to shape Oppenheimer’s emotional journey. Emily Blunt has less than thirty minutes of screen time, yet delivers one of the most memorable scenes in the entire film.
Such attitudes determined women’s expression in film. Women’s social diminishment has been translated onto the screen a plethora of times, encouraging women to be quiet and to accept the fact that they will not be able to simultaneously work and have a family. Instead, women should be more than willing to sacrifice some part of their identity to win in the end. Take nearly every Hallmark or early 2000s rom-com movie.
The film industry today, with the pioneering of female filmmakers, producers, directors and actors, has come closer to ending the perpetuation of these stereotypes. It has created conversations about women with layered, complex characters that resonate through the depiction of women’s rage — the phenomenon where a woman embraces her emotions and acts on them.
One of the leaders in this movement is Florence Pugh. Her impressive filmography champions women of all different mediums who are far from perfect, but full of duality.
In A24’s “Midsommar” (2019), Pugh’s character slowly spirals into madness due to exposure with a terrifying cult. In “Little Women” (2019), she plays Amy March, one of the four vibrant March sisters, symbolizing the pain and struggles women faced before gaining rights. Pugh is well-recognized for her performance, particularly for this monologue and scene. In Olivia Wilde’s “Don’t Worry Darling” (2022), her character is trapped in a 1950s virtual reality simulation by her boyfriend, portraying a doting housewife who fights tooth and nail to break free from the horrors of patriarchy. Within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, she depicts former assassin Yelena Belova, who struggles to find her place in the world after being brainwashed her entire life. So far, she has appeared in two projects: “Black Widow” (2021), where she breaks free and helps destroy the Red Room, and “Hawkeye” (2021), which continues her emotional journey as she seeks revenge for Natasha’s death (Scarlett Johansson). In her more recent projects, she portrays Princess Irulan in “Dune: Part Two” (2024), a villainous and conniving strategist loyal to the Mother Reverend, as well as a woman who undergoes the tumultuous journey of falling in love, having a family, and being a master chef while battling ovarian cancer in “We Live in Time” (2024).
Mia Goth, Margot Robbie and Anya Taylor-Joy are also actresses well-versed in this movement.
Goth stars in “Pearl” (2022), “X” (2022) and “MaXXXine” (2024), a trilogy where she plays a young woman caught between her duty of caring for her family and the increasing desire to be in show business. While women are usually the victims in the horror genre and subject to cruel, over-the-top murders, the franchise puts Goth’s Maxine at the forefront of it all — the blood, the gore, the action and the conniving — to question societal conceptions of womanhood, sex and what defines our morals.
Robbie boasts an extensive filmography, with some of her most iconic characters including Tonya Harding from the biopic “I, Tonya” (2017). She also portrays Harley Quinn in Detective Comics’s “Suicide Squad” (2016), “Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)” (2020), and “The Suicide Squad” (2021). Most recently, she played the titular, stereotypical Barbie in “Barbie” (2023).
In “I, Tonya,” Robbie brings to life the rise and fall of American figure skater Tonya Harding. Robbie brings the many layers of Harding to the screen, capturing her obsession with her craft, her strict upbringing and her abusive marriage. Her character speaks to classism and sexism in society; while it does not conventionally follow the more common “female rage” tropes, “I, Tonya” shows the struggles of a woman in a male-dominated field: facing social pressures and injustices from every angle. As Harley Quinn, Robbie was the first DC heroine to be brought to a feature film; the emphasis on her sexual appeal varies over three films. In “Suicide Squad” (2016), Harley is dressed in ratty, sexy clothes and her character arc is her trying to get back with the Joker (Jared Leto) and escape her contract with Amanda Waller. She eventually gives up trying to pursue him and focuses on her own criminal empire before becoming a team leader and sort-of-superhero in “Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn” (2020) and “The Suicide Squad” (2021).
“Barbie,” one of the most recognizable films in the modern feminist movement, challenges and brings to light the detriments of the patriarchy by flipping the script and having the Barbies systemically and socially oppress the Kens. When Barbie and Ken go to the “real world,” Ken is uplifted by the emphasis on masculinity, whereas Barbie is saddened to see that she wasn’t as much of a feminist icon as she believed, experiencing classic encounters synonymous with womanhood: being belittled, catcalled, developing cellulite and aging. Their experiences lead to a revolution, which serves as a commentary on the zeitgeist by finding a way to connect all genders to feminism.
“Barbie” was directed by Greta Gerwig, who is not shy about writing authentic female characters. Some of her most notable projects include “Little Women” (2019) and “Lady Bird” (2017). She is an award-winning director, actor and writer, aiding in the screenplay development of the award-winning film “Marriage Story” (2019), which can be singularly defined by its weighty conversation about motherhood and the patriarchy between Scarlett Johansson and Laura Dern’s characters.
Regarding the “Barbie” scene where Gloria (America Ferrera) vents about the double standards that women face in society, Gerwig encapsulates the limitations by which feminine rage is socially accepted and presented.
Taylor-Joy stars in “The Queen’s Gambit” (2020) and “The Menu” (2022), both of which bring intricate female characters to life. In “The Queen’s Gambit,” Taylor-Joy plays a master chess player, amounting to another take on being a woman in a male-dominated society.
Like Robbie’s Tonya, Taylor-Joy’s character also faces an identity crisis concerning her obsession with chess and what women must give up to succeed in society. When she is defeated by a younger player, she flips over the board, signifying defeat and frustration with herself as her rise was not full of recognition and ease. In “The Menu,” Taylor-Joy’s Margot uses her wits and physical prowess to talk the Chef (Ralph Fiennes) out of killing her. She is set up by her date, though this comes out later in the film, who knew that all the diners would die. While she pretends to be someone else in the first act, she has no objection to speaking her truth. She is chastised by her date for being childish, rude and even juvenile, but it is her outspoken nature that the Chef recognizes which ultimately allows her to be the sole survivor of the film. Margot survives through both brains and brawl, as her character has a gory fight scene with the Chef’s main assistant, who seeks to assassinate her despite the Chef’s apparent mercy toward her.
In a GQ interview, Taylor-Joy talked about her goals as an actor. “I’ve developed a bit of a reputation for fighting for feminine rage, which is a strange thing, because I’m not promoting violence — but I am promoting women being seen as people,” she told the outlet. “We have reactions that are not always dainty or unmessy.”
In the article, Taylor-Joy recounts all the choices she made that were digressed by male directors to best articulate her characters’ responses to the cruelty they faced.
In addition to horror, fantasy and comedy, the action genre is no stranger to these improvements. While mainly male-led, the “Mission Impossible” series harbors fan-favorite Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), a dynamic powerhouse who seemingly follows classic tropes of a female spy, but subverts them. Playing a British agent in disguise, Ilsa does not fall into the classic tropes of being a double-crossing spy who is in love with Ethan (Tom Cruise), the protagonist. Her character is independent in every appearance until her death in “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning” (2023) movie. Her depiction during her time in the franchise is realistic; she is a team player who is capable of operating solo, saves the other team members and — like everyone else on the team — gets saved as well.
Ferguson also stars in “Dune: Part One” (2021) and “Dune: Part Two” (2024) alongside Zendaya, both of whom bring complicated characters to the screen. Ferguson’s character is much more faithful to Frank Herbert’s “Dune,” presenting the audience with Lady Jessica’s devotion to her husband and how she extorts religion to ensure that Paul (Timothée Chalamet) becomes the Messiah. Her character’s mad descent into Herbert’s world of spice is enticing and horrific; however, it shows how Jessica has not only mastered the Reverend Mother way, the dominating ideology and belief system of this universe, but also took a systematically oppressive society and brought it to its knees. Zendaya’s Chani is not as faithful to Paul as Chani in Herbert’s novel and is presented with more agency than in the novel. In the novel, Chani is far more quiet and complicit; she does not fight as often, expresses her beliefs in the Fremen customs, marries Paul and has his child midway through the events of the novel.
In the film, Chani is a loud, angry fighter through and through. In an interview with the franchise director, Denis Villeneuve, Zendaya talks about how Chani was changed to be a physical manifestation of the rage and dangers of participating in systemic, divisive oppression. “Dune: Part Two” ends with Paul getting his revenge and announcing he will marry Princess Irulan (once again, the fantastic, multifaceted Florence Pugh) to cement himself as the Emperor. Chani, who has witnessed the downfall of Paul and the rise of the Muad’dib, storms out and rides a sandworm away, showing her love for Paul and the fear she has for the oppression of the Muad’dib.
Household names and films such as these have given an otherwise credible rise in the dimensions of women and given rise for female rage to be explored in a plethora of ways. One thing all these portrayals and characters have in common is that they stem from the current oppression of social hierarchies today, and with an ever-expanding creative film industry, create space for more of these stories to be told.
