20.03.2026

By

Eva-Maria Lainer

, ,

feedback 05.03.2026

  • children want what they see: other kids’ toys, advertisements, …
  • primal emotions | underlying emotions: anger and fear
  • societal stereotyping
  • dealing with emotions — practices
  • boys and anger | boys and sadness | anger in kids! (changes over the last 20 years?)
  • female anger: directing the project maybe to women and not girls?
  • behavioral experts

research

»the urge to exact revenge derives from our desire for cosmic balance, as well as from our attempts to overcome helplessness through displays of power.«

— philosopher martha nussbaum

revenge rights the scales, despite doing nothing to restore what was lost or repair what was damaged


  • anger generally arises from a sense of being wronged and is hostile to understanding, which is why we say »rage is blind«
  • anger makes you more confident & obliterates other: 2001 study by j. lerner & d. keltner found that feeling angry makes people as optimistic as feeling happy (about the outcome of a situation)
  • political rhetoric suggests that without anger there is no powerful engagement, anger is a sort of gasoline that runs the engine of social change
  • anger helps us protect what’s ours — feeling in charge & focussing
  • motivates to solve problems — is triggered when we face an obstacle/something that blocks our needs
  • can often trigger optimism — geared toward what is attainable, not impossible

the right to be angry is masculine — forgiveness is feminine

anger in men: authority, strength

anger in women: hysteria, irrationality

anger in marginalized groups: threatening, dangerous

power dynamics

expressions of rage are a means of exercising control over others & asserting status, a status defined in parts by the right to dominate: parents, bosses, police officers, husbands, …


anger emerges from three interacting factors:

  1. a provocation (the trigger)
  2. the interpretation of the provocation
  3. the mood at the time

»I don’t get angry …« (no yelling, hitting …) — that means not getting aggressive, not not getting angry — individuals show their anger in many different forms, just like sadness

many questions and thoughts where this project could and should go 🙂


how can female anger be translated into measurable physical force? how do societal norms shape the perception and acceptance of this force?

measuring force — »Hau den Lukas«, boxing machine, …

situated between critique and play, I want my project to use humor and exaggeration to make inequalities visible whilst also being food-for-thought. anger is a powerful emotion & I want to work against its bad reputation as solely »negative emotion«.

measuring power (of anger); frustration; showing power dynamics/systematic oppression/how different power is looked at gender-wise


further steps

  • prototyping & testing
  • questionnaire/interviews about experiencing anger(suppression) as a woman

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