Considering why mothers often feel a rage "so hot it is blinding," Minna Dubin wonders: "What if we were normal mothers reacting to unjust circumstances? What if mom rage were a widespread, culturally created phenomenon, and not just personal problem?" These questions, prompted by her own experience, resulted in a 2020 essay she wrote for the New York Times, which she expanded into the full-length Mom Rage. Using additional research and critique, Mom Rage moves between the contextual and the individual, exploring the oft-hidden rage that many experience alongside motherhood. Dubin focuses first on the broader context in which mothers operate, then zooms in to the individual, exploring the physiological and psychological causes. She offers suggestions for individuals seeking to navigate their own anger before zooming back out to consider systemic solutions to the same. This combined micro and macro view of the issue veers Mom Rage well away from any risk of victim-blaming; Dubin works overtime across these pages to dispel the myths that "conflate women's anger with harm," especially when considered in the context of race and culture.
Drawing on years of interviews with parents across the globe, of varying backgrounds, races, cultures, sexualities, and family structures, Mom Rage is a searing indictment of the failed systems of support and flawed narratives that too often surround parenthood. Dubin calls Mom Rage a "rebellion against the supremacy of the googly-eyed, cooing narrative, and the way it silences moms by erasing the harder parts of modern motherhood." It is bound to resonate with any woman who has experienced the shift to motherhood as anything less than perfect. --Kerry McHugh, freelance writer