Letter 02
The second letter has arrived!
You may have spotted the cast of my painting series ‘I’m A Perfect 10’, sketched and scattered across the participants’ envelopes. The Cat is featured below, where themes of improvement and purpose are aptly addressed.
Thank you for sharing:
Text: “Dear Reader,
Has anything ever happened to you so profound that it splits your life into neat little boxes of before and after?
Something so seismic that, whether you like to admit it or not, changes everything?
As a survivor of sexual assault, I know this too well. Of course, I hate to give the incident that much power – but from that day onwards, I’ve lived in the after.
Therapy taught me that anger is normal. Expected, even. But that holding onto it too tightly can be counterproductive. That it might make me bitter.
And bitter I was. But bitterness doesn’t even begin to cover it. I felt anger. I felt rage. I felt wrath.
We live in a society that teaches women to stay small, quiet and compliant – especially in the face of injustice. Wrath is something we’re told to release, not wield. It’s painted as dangerous, irrational and excessive.
But what I felt wasn’t just wrath – it was feminist rage. Not born of a single moment, but something that had always lived in me, passed down, perhaps, through generations of women who swallowed their fury to survive. That certain event – the assault – didn’t create my rage; it ignited it.
That rage seeped into every part of my life – and instead of drowning me, it carried me forward.
It taught me not to be ashamed. It gave me a voice. It gave me purpose.
Wrath became my armour. It became my ammunition. It became a way to survive. (And isn’t it telling that even our metaphors for strength and resilience are steeped in violence?)
Society says my rage is inappropriate. That I should soften. Smile more. Apologise. Forgive. Be quiet. Be graceful. Be nice.
But I’ve learned that my wrath is not a weakness – it’s a force for good.
It woke me up. Not just in the daily grind, but in the broader, political sense. It revealed the depth of the systems we live under – the way patriarchy informs laws, language, behaviour, relationships, and identity.
To all the women who’ve been told that anger makes them unlovable, irrational, hysterical – know this: your wrath is not shameful. It is not too much. It is not a burden.
My wrath saved me. Fuck the patriarchy.
Yours sincerely xx”
