Since time immemorial, societies have held motherhood to a standard of perfection; mothers must be all-capable polite, and patient heroes. Central to this mythical perfection is the notion that mothers shouldn’t express (or feel!) anger. Whether witnessed and silenced to the zone of the unspeakable or cast out of the realm of our conscious experience, anger is classified as a negative emotion with negative consequences—a dangerous feeling that women should not admit to experiencing. The truth is, however, that we all feel angry.
