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Taylor Davenport

Mrs. Maciulewicz

CCP English

6 November 2020

A Woman's Fury Holds a Lifetime of Wisdom

One hundred and thirteen countries do not have laws to ensure equal pay among men

and women. Society still treats women as second class citizens. The reason this has continued to

be put on the back burner is men can’t put themselves in these specific situations. Surveys and

studies have proven men's biggest fear is ridicule while women fear violence. This can be

changed if we are able to have a common understanding with each other. Women have finally

been speaking out and sharing their stories. Analyzing a wise woman's speech allows the

message to be received; we must be on the same page.

Tracee Ellis Ross provides personal, comedic examples that show how a woman’s

power and passion is equivalent to a lifetime of wisdom. She starts off by telling a story of an

old friend. Ross explains the friend as a bright and strong woman. The friend was in a post

office right before Christmas. Being a holiday the post office was crowded. She was filling out a

form until a man put his hands on her and physically moved her. At first she was shocked and

then felt fury. Ross makes it known that fury was the word she used when describing the

situation.

Ross continued to think about it and how her friend used the word fury. She herself

bagan to feel the fury. Fury seemed to be a common feeling for a lot of people at the time. To

ease the tension in the crowd, Tracee makes light of the situation. She said, “I feel like this is

the point in the room where all the men are getting a little bit uncomfortable” (Ross 2:50). She
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makes an excellent point about all womens’ fury. The fury was ignited by years of sexual

harassment and being treated like second class citizens. Ross delivers this speech perfectly.

She’s serious enough to get her point across and is able to not make it awkward. Bringing slight

humor into a dark subject helps people from getting uncomfortable. People tend to run from

controversial topics so if you break the ice they will listen.

She gives men the closest thing to an example by saying”, “Fellas, can you imagine

you're just on your phone, and someone walks up to you and just takes it out of your hand? And

they're like, "OK dude, I don't know why you're getting so upset, I want to make a phone call.

I'm going to give it back to you as soon as I'm done. Whatever" (Ross 3:25). Ross is referring to

how most men think they can walk up to a woman and treat her however they want. She’s

explaining that men wouldn’t like it if they were objectified. Her examples can put things into

perspective because men can’t miraculously step into a woman’s shoes. Using a phone as her

point was an excellent way to make the men in the audience get some kind of relation. There

always seems to be an excuse when it comes to assault. Normally people tend to say if a woman

is wearing something that shows her body she’s automatically asking for it. Ross had a point

about that too. She stated “Yeah, well, I mean, you got a fancy case," or "You shouldn't have

taken it out of your pocket," or "Yep. Yeah. That's just the way it is"(Ross 3:35 ). Her point is

that this behavior is unacceptable There will never be a just reason to act like this. It’s a shame

that she had to use an analogy about a phone to get the point across. She explains that she uses

the word fury because anyone would be furious if they dealt with this frequently. Over time it

simply continues to build up.

She makes it very clear that she’s not trying to attack men because that would

accomplish nothing. Ross doesn’t believe that men are less moral because of this but she thinks
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men have a blind spot for it. People tend to stay out of conflict unless it is a personal attack

against them, so this is a valid point. She explains that since women have been dealing with this

for so long it’s almost as if women can feel unspoken experiences of the women before them. In

the past men felt as if they controlled women and their life decisions. She brings up how women

tend to believe it’s their fault for someone else’s actions. Ross explains”, “ Women have been

trained to think that we are overreacting or that we're being too sensitive or unreasonable”

(6:46). Being told over and over again the same thing, women tend to swallow their pride and

stay quiet. The fury continues to be bottled up and solves nothing. She makes it known that one

woman igniting in fury will light up the past.

Women can no longer sit back and let some men make them the victim. She inspires

women to take a stand by saying”, “Time's up on women being held responsible for men's bad

behavior. It is man's responsibility to change men's bad behavior” (Ross 8:11). The audience

loved her and was cheering her on throughout the whole speech. Culture in the world is

changing. Women and men must both work together for gender equality. The point of this

speech wasn’t to say all men are bad. The point was to acknowledge that this is still happening.

Not all men do this. This is simply ignorance that has been passed down by generation. We

need to take a stand together to make this change.

Ross encourages women to acknowledge their fury. She wants it to be shared. For too

long voices have been muted and shut down. That’s always been the problem, being outspoken.

Society has evolved but we as humans are moving backwards. Racism, sexism, and

homophobia are still enormous problems throughout the world. Not everyone has to be

accepting of this movement. All that is needed is to be tolerant. Acceptance is wanting people to

understand and recognize different cultures. The world has shown us that this is too much to ask
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for. Tolerance is what needs to be asked of. To tolerate something there doesn’t have to be

understanding. There can still be a disagreement and that’s fine! Not everyone has the same

viewpoints but there must be peace. No longer can people sit back and allow innocent human

beings to be persecuted for who they are. Society now has new generations of strong, leading

women. Voices will be heard! With the help of everyone this is achievable. It’s not difficult. All

that is needed is mutual respect. We are all the same regardless of gender, color, creed, and

sexual orientation. These are just small things that people decide to point out and judge. What is

the point of being in this world if you have hate in your heart? We are all a part of one race and

that is the human race.

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Works Cited

Ross, Tracee Ellis. “A Woman's Fury Holds Lifetimes of Wisdom.” Ted Talk, Chris

Anderson, April 2018,

https://www.ted.com/talks/tracee_ellis_ross_a_woman_s_fury_holds_lifetimes_of_wisdom/trans

cript?language=en#t-10599.