No One Loves an Angry Woman

On Faith, Culture, and Feminine Rage

De: Gemma Hartley

This is a coming of rage story: the best-selling author of Fed Up deconstructs her Evangelical upbringing and shows how women’s anger can lead us towards change

Gemma Hartley grew up in an Evangelical household where she was raised to become an obedient wife from the time she was a little girl. A sexual assault as a teenager upended her evangelical world, and that coupled with an upbringing steeped in purity culture led her to internalize guilt, silence… and anger.

The good girl conditioning of the church demanded that Hartley seek the narrow path of womanhood that emphasized service to others, to swallow the discomfort and rage that simmered just below the surface – but when political events rewakened her trauma, she began to come apart at the seams. Here she unravels the threads of her upbringing to weave a new story, one where women’s anger is not sinful and dangerous – it is information, and often the most rational response there is.

Whether or not you’ve ever set foot in a church, Christian patriarchal norms have shaped American culture in ways that are far-reaching and insidious. From restrictive legislation that takes away women’s bodily autonomy to cultural norms that expect women to pick up after their husbands and joyfully give up their careers to care for children—these are all standards informed and fed by Christian culture.

Tying together her Christian upbringing together with a feminist examination of society today, Hartley tells her personal story, but it’s bigger than that: No One Loves an Angry Woman is the story of a cultural awakening.