In polite society, women are expected to keep it together. Tamp down their more unsavory emotions. Maintain a docile, agreeable demeanor to ensure the comfort of everyone around them.
Contrary to popular belief, those aforementioned unsavory emotions, like anger, are completely normal. Who hasn’t wanted to scream uninhibited or rage against the machine without castigation? It’s crucial that we recognize and process these feelings for our mental and physical health.
In terms of media representation, we’ve thankfully reached a turning point. More shows and films are depicting women in all their complexities and colors. Yes, even the “ugliness” of anger. One such series, Yellowjackets, does a brilliant job of letting its women be angry. Let’s dive into examples of this and why that is.
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Season 1
Yellowjackets Season 1 deftly explores gender double standards, women’s sexuality and rage via Teen Natalie’s (Sophie Thatcher) journey. She rails against those aforementioned double standards, notably when Teen Travis (Kevin Alves) asks Nat what “number” he’d be before they have sex. Men are encouraged to sow their wild oats while women are expected to abstain from sex for the sake of modesty and purity. Nat has a wonderful monologue about how men don’t have a monopoly on sex. “It’s 1996 — our vaginas have monologues now,” she tells Travis.
This bleeds into the group’s perception of Nat’s “promiscuity.” She sits on her rage until Travis’ question makes the dam burst. Nat had only been with two guys prior to Travis, but that’s beside the point. People are so quick to judge women who unapologetically embrace their sexuality.
No One Is Okay
Meanwhile, in the present timeline, Adult Nat (Juliette Lewis) grows tired of Taissa (Tawny Cypress) and Shauna (Melanie Lynskey) passing judgment on her. They accuse her of perpetually living on the brink, shuffling in and out of rehab while searching for temporary hits of dopamine. However, in episode seven, Nat goes off on Tai and Shauna, calling them out on their hypocrisy. None of them is stable. No one is okay. How could one be after enduring the Wilderness? At least Nat is self-aware.
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In that moment, we see Nat’s visceral, unadulterated rage, fueled by her grief over losing Travis (Andrés Soto). Then, in the ’90s timeline in the same episode, Teen Tai (Jasmin Savoy Brown) repeatedly cuts up the wolf who attacked Teen Van (Liv Hewson), complete with that guttural, heart-wrenching scream upon seeing Van post-attack. There’s an overflow of rage there, too. Grief and rage are two sides of the same coin.
Next, episode nine sees the teens tripping on Teen Misty’s (Samantha Hanratty) shrooms during Doomcoming. It unleashes a ferocity in them we hadn’t seen before. They howl like wild animals, uninhibited, while searching for Jackie (Ella Purnell) and Travis.
Season 2
Jackie’s death unlocks an inherent ire in Teen Shauna (Sophie Nélisse). It’s all-consuming. She becomes entrenched in that anger, even trying to pick a fight with Mari (Alexa Barajas). Tai, Shauna’s Wilderness ride or die at the time, channels her worry into rage at Shauna for playing dress up with Jackie’s frozen, two-month-old corpse. Fun times.
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In episode three, Adult Lottie (Simone Kessell) makes an intriguing statement about anger and its vital role in the human emotional spectrum. She tells Lisa (Nicole Maines) that she used to be a doormat. She allowed people to walk all over her. Lottie also suppressed her rage. She encourages Lisa to honor her anger — to feel it and acknowledge it. Move through it. This is a surprisingly healthy take on the oft-stigmatized emotion. It’s important to treat your rage like any other emotion and find healthy coping mechanisms to address it. Then, let it go when it no longer serves you.
Episode seven finds Shauna on the warpath in the ’90s timeline. She’s lost her baby, and, in her grief, she’s hallucinating that the others ate said baby. She blames Misty for “killing” her child and punches her. Then, Teen Lottie (Courtney Eaton) offers herself as a punching bag. She encourages Shauna to beat the snot out of her, to release her rage. They need Shauna. So, she does just that. It’s an interesting and stark contrast to the present timeline, where we see the adults dancing and laughing in Lottie’s compound.
Season 3
Admittedly, all of the examples of pure anger I’ve found in Season 3 involve, you guessed it, Shauna. In both timelines, as a matter of fact. The season premiere focuses on Teen Shauna rage-writing in her journal, declaring they went “f*cking mad” and ate each other. Oh, and they enjoyed it. They reveled in the darkness.
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Shauna’s rage is palpable. It’s a wellspring of unprocessed grief and trauma over losing Jackie and her baby. She’s envious of Nat becoming the Antler Queen over her, too. Shauna bullies Mari (and we know that inexplicable rivalry starts in Season 1). The others fear her. She’s become a black hole. Who can’t relate to that? Sure, Shauna does truly abhorrent things in Season 3, but who can’t resonate with one weaponizing their trauma and grief when resources for healthy coping aren’t available?
Next, episode three widens the chasm of darkness in Adult Shauna as she takes her anger out on Misty and Lottie in the present timeline. She kicks Misty out of her van, accusing the latter of tampering with her brakes. Then, she screams at Lottie upon seeing Jackie’s necklace around her daughter Callie’s (Sarah Desjardins) neck. Shauna gives Lottie the boot. Lynskey taps into Shauna’s rage, making that rage feel tangible, like it has sharp, serrated edges that could make us bleed.
A Bloody Reunion
Episode eight sees Shauna reunite with Adult Melissa (Hilary Swank) and go past the point of no return. She blames Melissa for her problems. After making Melissa the scapegoat, Shauna attacks her, biting off a piece of her flesh and feeding it to her. So, there’s that. Shauna’s reverting to the primal, feral state she adopted in the Wilderness. The show asks us if, perhaps, this is who Shauna always was. However, it’s also a cautionary tale of what happens when one’s mental health isn’t supported.
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The season’s penultimate outing marks a turning point for Teen Shauna and Teen Melissa’s (Jenna Burgess) relationship in the ’90s timeline. Shauna publicly humiliates Melissa, yelling at her in front of the other teens. She also fires at Melissa but purposely misses, causing the latter to urinate in her pants out of understandable terror.
Here, Shauna utilizes her rage to mask her fears, projecting her anger onto Melissa to distract from how she really feels, deep, deep down: afraid.
The Wilderness Rages
There’s a fascinating dichotomy between the varied colors and nuances of how anger manifests on this show, particularly between how Natalie and Shauna exhibit rage in both timelines. Of course, Nat is clearly a hero figure and the least morally bankrupt of the crew. Even in the throes of survival in the Wilderness, Nat doesn’t lose her moral center. She clings tightly to her humanity. When she gets angry, it’s usually in the name of protecting someone else.
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What’s great about Yellowjackets is that we have a full spectrum of anger on display, including Shauna’s rage and darkness, which often threatens to consume everyone in its orbit. Shauna makes objectively immoral decisions and hurts those around her, but this series doesn’t shy away from showing her rage in all its ugliness and messiness.
Women aren’t perfect. We’re not demure little dolls devoid of emotion, no matter what this deeply entrenched patriarchal society expects of us. This series showcases us as the multifaceted beings we are.
It lets us be angry.
RELATED: Read our Yellowjackets recaps
Yellowjackets Seasons 1 through 3 are now streaming on Paramount+ with Showtime.
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What I do: I'm GGA's Managing Editor, a Senior Contributor, and Press Coordinator. I manage, contribute, and coordinate. Sometimes all at once. Joking aside, I oversee day-to-day operations for GGA, write, edit, and assess interview opportunities/press events.
Who I am: Before moving to Los Angeles after studying theater in college, I was born and raised in Amish country, Ohio. No, I am not Amish, even if I sometimes sport a modest bonnet.
Bylines in: Tell-Tale TV, Culturess, Sideshow Collectibles, and inkMend on Medium.
Critic: Rotten Tomatoes, CherryPicks, and the Hollywood Creative Alliance.
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