The Aggression of Women

[clarentine]

Further to the previous post - I note that the Tiptree award results came out today. Sarah Hall's The Carhullan Army won, and in her comments about the book Gwenda Bond said, "Hall does so many things well in this book – writing female aggression in a believable way, dealing with real bodies in a way that makes sense, and getting right to the heart of the contradictions that violence brings out in people, but particularly in women in ways we still don't see explored that often."

Aggression is not, to my mind, a truly gendered thing. However, I agree that there are aggressive behaviors which appear more often amongst one gender or another. What sort of aggressive behavior would you think that a woman--especially a woman in a man's world, in a swords-and-sorcery-style setting--might exhibit? (Yes, of course this relates to something I'm working on, fiction-wise. Irie thanks you for your interest...or not, depending on her mood.)

Aside from the Hall book, which I am going to look up, do you have other books that you'd recommend as delving into this concept of the aggression of women?

Comments

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

That really depends on how much she is dependent on social acceptance, doesn't it? A woman who embraces violence as a means to an end often thereafter (historically speaking, at least) is something of a social outcast, unless she can convince society that the episode was a justified aberration and really, she's all better now. A woman who embraces violence as a lifestyle is, in real terms, a social aberration.

Examples of this include women of the special services in WWII, and modern female soldiers, who are expected to be soldiers with other soldiers, which is a role generally viewed as 'male' and then to return to acting 'female' roles after their service is over.

By society at large, anyway.

(But then to society at large I'm aberrant, being 5'9, physically active - less so than I'd like - and distinctly un-'female' in dress. But, you know. The compensations of being able to be so outweigh the social disapproval of the more middle-class and middle-aged types. Many people do tend to just assume I'm gay, though. :P)

[clarentine]

And, if she can't get that acceptance, she'd likely make a show of not wanting it, eh?

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

I would say yes.

(And damn, but is this a topic I like to talk about or what? Wind me up and watch me pontificate. :P)

[clarentine]

LOL

Not that I'm objecting or anything. *g*

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

:)