Female anger is a hot topic. And it’s just got hotter since Gwyneth Paltrow — serene wellness celebrity — outed herself as someone who hits things with a plastic bat to release anger.
Surprised? Certainly not if you’re a woman born before 1970. It’s true things look pretty rosy in Paltrow world — not least Paltrow herself, who could pass for 40 when she’s 51 — but therein lies the clue. Paltrow is somewhere on the pre, during, post-menopausal journey. She’s officially in the Angry Years and there’s no telling when she’s going to come out of them.
One thing we do know is that anger does not get better with age. It gets a lot worse for a long time before normal anger levels are resumed, but then there’s evidence (my experience) that once you’ve got used to exercising your anger muscle, you use it more often and care less.
On top of that, anger triggers change with age. You get angry about things you would have shrugged off 20 years ago because now they symbolise bigger things, or you just cannot believe that after all this time no one is listening, or you’ve developed (let’s be honest) some weird sensitivities.
Here are some of the midlife anger triggers Gwyneth will be familiar with (sort of):