In the last two years, I’ve noticed a shift in TV, film and literature. Female rage is being heard, and not just on the fringes, but through mainstream media.

Disney’s new She-Hulk: Attorney A Law is one of the latest shows to address it. In a now-famous scene, Jen (aka She-Hulk) tells Bruce (aka Hulk): “Well, here’s the thing, Bruce: I’m great at controlling my anger. I do it all the time. When I’m catcalled in the street, when incompetent men explain my own area of expertise to me. I do it pretty much every day because if I don’t, I’ll get called ’emotional’ or ‘difficult’ or might just literally get murdered. So I’m an expert at controlling my anger because I do it infinitely more than you.”

Now, we are all aware that Disney is hardly a winning feminist brand, but even it has caught on to the rise in the representation of Angry Women.

Other TV series have focused on female rage more comprehensively, with Phoebe Waller-Bridge leading the charge. In both Fleabag and her writing on the show Killing Eve, she has articulated anger to the masses; there’s a rage-filled monologue on pain in Fleabag by Belinda (Kristin Scott Thomas) that has stuck with me ever since: “Women are born with pain built in. It’s our physical destiny – period pains, sore boobs, childbirth. We carry it within ourselves throughout our lives. Men don’t. They have to seek it out. They invent all these gods and demons so they can feel guilty about things, which is something we do very well on our own. And then they create wars so they can feel things and touch each other, and when there aren’t any wars they can play rugby. We have it all going on in here, inside.”

There is a collective catharsis happening on our screens, with women finally being given the opportunities to write, direct and act with agency, real stories and real rage is coming through. Kevin Can F**K Himself, I May Destroy You, Shrill, Yellowjackets, Mare Of Easttown, Candy, Promising Young Woman. Who can forget Rosamund Pike’s delivery of this line from Gone Girl: “Cool girl. Men always use that, don’t they? As their defining compliment. She’s a cool girl. Cool girl is hot. Cool girl is game. Cool girl is fun. Cool girl never gets angry at her man. She only smiles in a chagrin, loving manner and then presents her mouth for fucking. She likes what he likes.”

Most of these shows, however, have white leads. Black women have not yet been afforded the same privilege or platform to express their anger and are more harshly judged, with ‘angry Black woman’ stereotypes continuing to persist (on and off screen).

Welcome to the renaissance of female rage