Name: Rage rooms.
Appearance: Full of old appliances and angry women.
Hang on, rage rooms aren’t new, are they? No, the idea of charging people to smash stuff up safely as a form of commercialised catharsis reportedly emerged in Japan in 2008, around the same time Chicago entrepreneur Donna Alexander started charging people $5 to break things in her garage. But it really went global in 2015 and 2016.
Ah, yes, the Brexit vote, the first Trump administration – angry times. Makes sense. So, what’s new? They’re booming again, especially with women. The Times reports bookings at Virgin’s Ultimate Xtreme Rage Room are up 219%. Weston-super-Mare’s Activity Dome has seen a surge of 150%, and 90% of them are women.
Funny, I never imagined Weston-super-Mare as a particularly angry place. Oh, it’s seething. And the local rage room is “a very popular emotional outlet for ladies who want to relieve work, relationship and childcare stress”, according to manager Tyler Austin.
Not to mention irritation at being called “ladies”. Be thankful it wasn’t “feisty ladies”, I suppose.
So what’s bringing women to rage rooms – are we getting angrier? Yep – in 2022, BBC analysis of Gallup polling data from around the world showed women’s anger levels rising over the preceding decade. In 2017 (when #MeToo went mainstream) they started diverging from men and by 2021, there was a 6% gender anger gap. Women taking on a disproportionate caring burden during the pandemic definitely didn’t help.
Nor did the recent rollback of reproductive rights in the US, I reckon. Or the fact that women in the UK have been working for free since last Saturday, thanks to the gender pay gap. And of course, ole “grab them by the pussy” is back in the White House, calling a female reporter “piggy”. Also, men sneezing violently and loudly.
Yes! What is that about?! That’s probably an “emotional outlet” too.
But what if you don’t feel up to smashing stuff? It sounds awfully energetic. Women are exhausted, what with the mental load, worrying about sexual assault and wondering if their faces are so offensive to the male gaze, they need a deep plane facelift. How about screaming? Scream clubs, where you meet in public to let it all out, are all the rage.
Any quieter options? Dr Jennifer Cox, who wrote a book about women’s anger, suggests underwater screaming, whacking a pile of coats with a wooden spoon, “hurling ice cubes at a patio or slapping a wet flannel into a sink”. But wouldn’t it feel incredible to just smash something?
I’d go to a rage room with wall-to-wall printers. They’re the only thing worse than the patriarchy. Well, Johannes Gutenberg was a man.
Do say: “Women need safe, satisfying outlets for their anger, darling …”
Don’t say: “… so I trashed your Tesla with your golf clubs.”
