Why Feminist Voices Have Always Made People Uncomfortable | FF Rebel

Hey folks.
There are so many strong women we talk way too little about. Women who helped shape history and women who are still out there shaping it right now and fighting for women today.

So I figured I’d make this a recurring thing on the blog. From time to time, I’ll write about some of these women. The ones who did the work back then and the ones still doing the work today while the rest of us enjoy rights they definitely didn’t get for free.

Because here’s the thing.
Women being loud has never gone down particularly well.

Not now. Not a hundred years ago. Probably not ever.

Whenever women raise their voices, show anger, or refuse to stay polite, the reaction is usually predictable. We’re called aggressive. Difficult. Extreme. Too much. As if making people uncomfortable is a personal flaw rather than a sign that something important is being said.

This isn’t new. At all.

One very clear example is Emmeline Pankhurst, leader of the British suffragette movement in the early 1900s. She wasn’t an artist. She didn’t paint, sculpt, or write poetry. What she did was demand that women be treated as full citizens. And apparently, that alone was enough to cause panic.

Pankhurst founded the Women’s Social and Political Union in 1903, fighting for women’s right to vote in the UK. When peaceful protests were ignored, the movement escalated. Windows were smashed. Property was damaged. Women were arrested, imprisoned, and force-fed during hunger strikes. Pankhurst herself was jailed multiple times.

The way society talked about these women was brutal. Suffragettes were described as hysterical, dangerous, unfeminine, unstable. Not because they were violent criminals, but because they were visible, organised, and impossible to ignore.

Which, honestly, sounds familiar.

What still feels completely insane to me is how wanting basic rights was framed as extremism. Women asking for a voice were treated as a threat to social order. The problem was never really their actions. The problem was that they refused to be quiet and grateful.

If you want to dive deeper into this part of history, the film Suffragette (2015) offers a powerful glimpse into the women behind the movement and the resistance they faced.

British women over 30 finally gained the right to vote in 1918. Full voting equality followed in 1928. These changes didn’t come from being polite or well behaved. They came from persistence, disruption, and a willingness to be disliked.

Fast forward to today and the pattern is still there. Women who talk openly about equality are often told they’re taking something away from men by asking for their own rights. As if equality only works if it excludes someone else.

That misunderstanding hasn’t disappeared. It just keeps showing up in new forms.

This is where art comes in for me.

Art has always been one of the few places where anger and discomfort are allowed to exist without permission. It doesn’t have to be reasonable. It doesn’t have to be nice. It just has to be honest. Painting expressive, confrontational women isn’t about provoking people for fun. It’s about giving form to feelings women have been told to swallow for generations.

Works like Get It Out or F** You* don’t exist to decorate a room politely. They exist because sometimes silence is more dangerous than making people uncomfortable. Sometimes taking up space is the only option.

Emmeline Pankhurst once said, “We are here, not because we are law-breakers; we are here in our efforts to become law-makers.” I think about that a lot. About how progress rarely looks graceful while it’s happening. How resistance is almost always called ugly before it’s called necessary.

Women being loud didn’t start with social media.
It didn’t start with contemporary feminism.
And it definitely didn’t start with art.

We’re just a lot less interested in apologising for it now.

FF Rebel