How Far Will She Go: Theorising Female Rage in “Iron Widow” by Xiran Jay Zhao and “The Jasmine Throne” by Tasha Suri

Abstract

Rage is as genuine an emotion as happiness or sadness; ideally, one would not have to put one's anger through a trial. However, the negative connotations around the word ‘rage’ make it difficult to be perceived without any bias. To make matters worse, female rage, which arises in response to patriarchal oppression, has a history of being infantilised or fetishised in popular culture. Angry women were shown as unhinged beings who relish making a mockery of morality and societal conventions. However, contemporary feminist writers are trying to change this perception. Their works, which vary in genre, strive to illustrate that this rage is a warranted response to the trauma of oppression that women face throughout their lives. They argue that it has a purpose, a moral code, and conviction, and can bring about social change. This paper illustrates how contemporary speculative fiction works, particularly the select texts of Xiran Jay Zhao (Iron Widow, 2021) and Tasha Suri (The Jasmine Throne, 2021), portray female rage; how it manifested and what fuelled it; and what price the protagonists paid for their rage. It then uses Judith Butler’s gender theory to examine how putting a limit on this rage is just another form of patriarchal control.