Exhausted and overwhelmed, Gretchen Miller felt the frustration of the past three years rise up within her. On a whim the 54-year-old from Sydney posted a message to her local community Facebook group. “Does anyone else feel like screaming?” she asked.
The responses poured in. “I want to scream because of climate change and economic inequality,” one woman wrote. “Because of real estate agents and landlords,” said another. “My fiancé decided he didn’t love me anymore,” read one reply. Miller said she received more than 100 messages in the first hour
From that callout, the Shout Sisters group was formed. A month later they met for the first time at an inner city park to bellow their frustrations into the Australian night.
In recent months, women-only “scream groups” like Miller’s have cropped up all over the world. Frustration, pandemic exhaustion and the pressures of life are common reasons women say they take part. Most are drawn to the idea of unleashing their anger without inhibition. It’s a freedom participants say is hard to find in a world that can be uncomfortable with women’s rage.
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