Ahh, female rage. It’s an emotion many of us have grown uncomfortably familiar with. Between the loss of our bodily autonomy, increasingly difficult barriers to voting, and the horrifying reality of a convicted felon holding office, female rage has become more common than the feeling of safety for a lot of women.

The first time I remember feeling this rage was with the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022. I remember the moment vividly. I was 18 and sitting in my car before I went to my part-time retail job. When I read the news on my phone, I froze. At first, I didn’t fully understand what it meant. But after doing just a little research, I was struck with a fear unlike anything I’ve felt before. 

How can someone else decide what I do to MY body? I was in college. What would happen if I went to a frat party and got raped (because it is a very real and terrifyingly common)? What if the fetus wasn’t viable? What if it was going to kill me? Was I now expected to die for a clump of cells? Was a clump of cells more important than me, a living, breathing, independent human being? 

I went into work with fire behind my eyes. I have always considered myself a passive person, someone who tries to stay calm, find a reason for everything. But there was no reasoning. No logic could explain away this cruelty. I walked into my minimum-wage job in a town that worshiped Trump like a god. Blue flags waved in front of yards, red hats the same color as baboon asses sat proudly on heads, and tents selling Trump merch were on every corner like they were the day he announced his candidacy in 2015. 

That day, people were celebrating. They paraded around at the loss of my rights. For some, it was twisted into a victory. For me and many, many others, it was the start of a long mourning period. 

Since then, female rage has become an ever-present emotion, one we've been forced to normalize. It feels like every day there is a new policy, statement, or court ruling that chips away at women’s freedoms. We can’t decide what to do with and for our own bodies. We can't change our last names without practically losing the right to vote. We can't walk home alone in fear. And I could go on - believe me, I could. 

One of the few things that helps me cope is music. Screaming angry, raw lyrics while driving has become a sort of therapy. So, I've created the ultimate playlist of songs that transform tears into protest, heartbreak into fire. This is the soundtrack of our rage. Female rage. 

TV by Billie Eilish

This one is a slow start, but essential. I always begin with it to let the tears out. Billie captures that numb, anxious grief that settles in your chest if you think too much about the world. She directly refers to Roe v. Wade being overturned while the world is distracted with the Depp v. Heard trial. 

“The internet’s gone wild watching movie stars on trial while they’re overturning Roe v. Wade”

It’s understanding but haunting, a song that lets you feel the weight before you rise up.

Silver Springs - Live at Warner Bros Studios in Burbank, CA 5/23/97 by Fleetwood Mac

Stevie Nicks didn’t need to yell to scream. This performance isn’t political, but it is a masterclass that is controlled with fury. When Stevie locks eyes with Lindsay Buckingham and spits out “You never get away from the sound of the woman that loves you”, you feel that ancestral female rage. 

“I’ll follow you down ‘til the sound of my voice that haunts you”

Picture directing this song to every man who voted against your rights while claiming to “respect women”

The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived by Taylor Swift

No politics here, technically. But the parallels are impossible to ignore. This song, with its theatrical drums and marching-band bridge, sounds like the bitter end of blind patriotism. The line “You deserve prison, but you won’t get time” hits especially hard when you remember a man with 34 felonies is still a serious political leader. 

“In fifty years, will all this become declassified”

Sometimes I just imagine standing and screaming this in Trump’s face.

Labor by Paris Paloma 

This one feels like Paris read the collective journal of every woman and turned it into a war cry. It’s about emotional labor, unpaid sacrifice, and the suffocating right of expectation. It feels like every time I have ever sat down with men who voted for Trump, and they talked over me about what is “best” for women. As if they know what is best for us. 

“Therapist, mother, maid / Nymph, then a virgin / Nurse, then a servant”

Every second of this song makes me want to scream and cry and throw a punch. 

Americans by Janelle Monáe

This track should be required to listen to in schools. It captures that complex, dual feeling of loving your country while simultaneously being furious with it. Monáe shouts ‘I am American” with both pride and criticism. It's inclusive, powerful, and confrontational in all the right ways. 

“This is not my America”

I vote we make this song the anthem of our revolution.

Female rage isn’t new. It’s not a trend. It’s not “hysteria”. It’s centuries of oppression bubbling over into song, onto protest, into action. These tracks remind us that we’re not alone in our fury. They give us a space to feel, cry, scream, and then get up and fight again.

So put on your war paint (or just your headphones), roll down the windows, and blast these songs. Let yourself feel it. Every lyric, every scream - it’s valid. It’s powerful. It’s a revolution.