The Weaponization of Insanity Against Women
Introduction
“I am not insane,” she said — but in her world, a woman’s simple disagreement with her husband could be used as a weapon to silence her.
In the FUs’ book of the month, The Woman They Could Not Silence by Kate Moore, Moore revives the forgotten (or hidden by those who want it kept quiet?) story of Elizabeth Packard, a 19th-century wife and mother whose only “crime” was thinking independently. Her husband, a Calvinist minister, had her committed and locked away in an insane asylum for daring to disagree with his religious beliefs.
Set in an America where women were legally invisible and socially silenced (a place some modern forces are trying to get us back to), Moore’s book is a chilling exposé of how insanity has been weaponized against women, stripping us of our power and voices. It lays bare the patriarchal structures that defined women’s independence as deviance and her disagreement as derangement. This book is both a historical narrative and a feminist call to action — reminding readers that the struggle for recognition of women’s voices and credibility didn’t just begin; it has been raging for centuries.
This is an important point for those who claim “we haven’t come very far.” This book shows us that while change may be slow, it CAN happen, we just have to keep fighting for it.
Historical Context – When Sanity Belonged to Men
To understand the horror of Elizabeth Packard’s experiences, let’s dive in to the world she lived in. In the mid-19th century, the concept of “insanity” wasn’t purely medical — it was moral, social, and deeply gendered.
Under the law of coverture, a married woman had no independent legal identity. Her husband controlled her property, her body, and her public presence. In some states, a husband could institutionalize his wife without trial, evidence, or medical examination. Sounds like a good reason to stay single if you ask me…
In practice, this meant that women were often locked away by their husbands simply for disobedience, emotional distress, or intellectual curiosity. And let’s not forget another common reason for getting rid of your wife by locking her away: the man wanted a new, younger wife. In short, insanity became a catch-all “diagnosis” for women who weren’t what their husbands wanted.
There is no doubt that this system served the social order, because it allowed men to remain in total control of everything and everyone around them. The asylum thus became a prison for inconvenient women: wives who questioned their husbands, mothers who resisted absolute male authority, or daughters who refused marriage (asylum or sh*tty marriage as her only choices – yikes).
This injustice against women was part of a broader cultural pattern – the extent the patriarchy went to in order to remain in power. This story forces modern readers to confront the frightening ease with which power can distort truth.
Think about it, isn’t a quick way to discredit someone just to claim he/she is insane or, as commonly used in 2025, deranged?
Use of Insanity and Confinement to Silence Women
Inside the asylum, Packard encountered the full brutality of a system built to silence women as she was stripped of privacy, dignity, and credibility. Women protesting their confinement were dismissed as “delusional,” and these protestations were used to bolster the case for insanity. Letters were censored (if not outright destroyed), complaints ignored, and sanity denied. Their voices were completely stolen from them.
Silence was demanded and acquiescence rewarded under this patriarchal domination. Go along with whatever the male doctor says and get a pat on the head.
Yet, rather than succumb, Elizabeth used her intellect as resistance as she studied the system from within, documenting abuses and observing patterns. Her notebooks became a record of injustice — and later, a foundation for reform.
This scheme of imprisoning Elizabeth in an asylum may have been designed to silence and eventually erase her, but it instead forged her into something far more powerful: a truth-teller.
The Gender Politics of Madness
One of Moore’s greatest achievements is how she situates Packard’s story within the gendered politics of mental health. For centuries, the idea of “female madness” has been intertwined with patriarchal fear — fear of women who think, who speak, who desire autonomy.
In the 19th century, the medical diagnosis of “hysteria” was often applied to women who displayed emotion, ambition, or dissent. Ironic considering men are the ones who can’t control their behaviors based on emotions (I’m referring to all the violence we see from angry men). During Elizabeth’s time, doctors like Edward Clarke even argued that too much education could damage a woman’s reproductive organs — a pseudo-scientific way of insisting that intellect made women sick.
Through Elizabeth’s story, Moore exposes a timeless pattern: when women challenge authority, society questions their sanity and seeks to silence them. Why? Because it’s a threat to the patriarchy. It boils down to politics and control.
Modern Parallels – Gaslighting, Power, and Believability
What makes The Woman They Could Not Silence so haunting is its current relevance. Though the laws have changed, the cultural and political impulse to discredit women through psychological language persists.
Today, “crazy,” “emotional,” and “unstable” are still labels often used to undermine women who speak too forcefully or challenge authority. When a man goes into a rage, we don’t call him hysterical, but a women crying about a dead child, clearly hysterical. The phenomenon of gaslighting, popularized as a modern psychological term, shares deep roots with the historical weaponization of insanity.
Moore’s book thus functions as both a lesson and a warning. The institutions may look different, but the power dynamics remain familiar. Women who assert themselves—politically, professionally, or personally—still risk being told they’re “overreacting” or “too emotional” in an effort to undermine their confidence and make them inferior.
By reexamining Elizabeth’s story, Moore invites readers to recognize this continuity and resist it. In doing so, she reframes a 19th-century injustice as a mirror for 21st-century culture, where credibility and emotion are still gendered battlegrounds.
Conclusion
Kate Moore’s The Woman They Could Not Silence is not merely a biography—it’s a reckoning, a rallying cry to listen to women, believe women, and never again let the language of madness be used to silence truth. It confronts a period when the word “insane” was a weapon, wielded by men to maintain control over women’s minds and bodies.
Most importantly, Moore tells the story of how one woman shattered that construct through intellect, conviction, and the simple refusal to be erased. Defiance in this case is sanity. Speaking your truth, even when the world calls it madness, is its own kind of freedom.
Stay tuned for more posts about these themes this month!
