Hey there
Welcome to my blog The Fire in her Eyes, on feminism, film, and female rage. I'll be writing about a wide range of topics here, from depictions of female characters in film or on TV, to historical explorations of anger, odes to inspiring women, and much more. In case you're curious about the woman behind the text, allow me to introduce myself.
About me
My name is Tamar. I'm a (visual) anthropologist with a curious spirit. Writing has always been an interest of mine, ever since I was old enough to put pen to paper. When I was younger, my writing came in the shape of diaries and travel journals, perhaps a short story here or there. Later that evolved into scientific papers, methodological articles, anthropological handbooks, and, well... more diaries. Along the way I was also able to explore related fields like copy editing, photography, film, and graphic design, wether through my studies or through a separate project every once in a while.
Curiosity about human nature is what drove me to anthropology. I wanted to know what makes people tick, what they find important in life, and why. With this discipline being as widespread as it is, it's allowed me to conduct research, small and large, on various topics, including lived experience in an elderly home, the importance of faith during the COVID-19 pandemic at a local church, and women's participation in peacemaking processes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to name a few. Then I introduced filmmaking into the mix during my master's program and I immediately felt at home.
So why female rage? You can also call it female or feminine anger, but I like 'rage' better. It is a topic that has interested me for years. I started to notice that I felt very seen by films such as Thelma & Louise, Gone Girl, Promising Young Woman, but I couldn't put my finger on exactly why that was. Until I realized that they all posses that trope, that silent anger that I think so many women carry with them. This year, I drew my curiosity inward. Conversations about my emotions with a therapist, with friends and family, ignited a stark interest in me to explore this often repressed emotion, in myself and in social discourse. And you know what happens once you lay your focus on something? You start to see it everywhere. With a burst of inspiration, I wanted to create an outlet to write more regularly again, in tandem with my re-immersion into filmmaking over the course of the next few months. And so this blog was born.
Beyond this new writing endeavor, some things that I find joy in include (live) music, the color green, cooking experiments, traveling, caring for my houseplants, petting random cats on the street, and visiting a cinema or film house.
I'd say that about sums me up.