Rage rooms grow in popularity as women seek emotional release

BBC One West reported that a growing number of women seeking an emotional release are choosing rage rooms, which have opened across the West. Customers pay to destroy household items with baseball bats and crowbars in a controlled environment.

In a report for the programme, Claire Carter visited a rage room on the outskirts of Bath. According to BBC One West, visitors can write messages on the walls, play their own music and smash items including flat-screen televisions and trays of crockery with mallets and hammers. The reporter said a printer was at the top of everybody's list to smash.

Four young women, a mix of professionals, mothers and an entrepreneur, tried the room for the first time. One said it felt like a workout and was fun as well as a release. Another said: 'I felt really powerful.'

Sarah and Kerry told BBC One West that life in general, parenting and being a woman in the world made them angry. Sarah said social norms expect women to be well behaved and not to swear or break things. She said she had suffered mental health problems for years after her daughter was stillborn, and that talking therapy had not given her the same release.

A specialist interviewed by BBC One West said a rage room can feel like 'a kid in a candy store' because everything is suddenly allowed. The specialist was not surprised that around three-quarters of customers at some of these venues are women. The specialist said men have social spaces such as football matches and sport where shouting is acceptable, but women do not have a safe space to express rage.

The specialist cautioned that rage rooms are useful for short-term release, but whether they work as a long-term coping mechanism is 'a very different story'. In the report, Claire Carter concluded that the experience can be fun in moderation and in a safe space, but that it may not be an ultimate solution to deep-rooted problems.