I definitely had a few topics I knew needed to be included, it wouldn’t make sense to have a book about women’s anger and not talk about sexual assault, or motherhood, or the racial stereotypes of anger. We spoke by phone shortly after the release of the book.ĭid you have any ideas of about specific kinds of anger you wanted the writers to address? Lilly is a contributing editor and columnist at Catapult, runs the Memoir Monday newsletter and Brooklyn-based reading series, and is the author of a forthcoming memoir. The writers explore the triggers of their anger, the emotional response of the experience, and how anger impacts their lives. Editor Lilly Dancyger solicited essays from a broad spectrum of women and presents a variety of different types of anger, from the anger surrounding sexual assault to the anger derived from not being believed by their own doctor. (Oct.Burn it Down is a collection of essays by women exploring women’s anger. It is a cathartic and often inspiring reading experience. As Dancyger notes in her introduction, women’s anger has long been trivialized and discredited, but this collection allows that anger the space to flourish. Other rage-inducing topics include intentional misgendering, religious discrimination, sexism in the classroom, and perimenopause. Lisa Marie Basile documents years of suffering from a chronic illness and having her symptoms minimized by doctors and friends alike, declaring her refusal to be dismissed: “There is too much beauty in being alive to silence my intuition, to ignore my body, to not sing its needs and demand they be met.” Evette Dionne writes of the “angry black woman” stereotype, and how it silences women and shapes perceptions of famous African-American women such as Serena Williams. Samantha Riedel recalls unlearning a lifetime of aggressive masculine social conditioning after transitioning from male to female, while still harnessing the power of anger to scare off harassers and put TERFs (trans-exclusionary radical feminists) in their place. The writers are a diverse group and cover a wide range of experiences. Editor Dancyger collects essays from 22 female writers contemplating (and unleashing) anger, continuing the #MeToo ethos of emotional transparency and righteous indignation, to bracing and powerful effect.

Burn it down lilly dancyger