American Aileen Wuornos killed seven men between November 1989 and November 1990. She is not considered to be rational and capable of both good and bad. In contrast, the violent woman is not considered to be an agent in her own fate. These discourses allow men choice, the ability to make rational decisions, albeit ‘wrong’ ones, and agency. Discourses around violent men are much more fluid. They minimise it by making the violent woman dependent, weak and childlike (‘victim’), out of her (right) mind (‘insane’) or non-human and mythical, incapable of restitution (‘bad’). Dominant discourses work to contain this threat. She suggests alternative ways of being that break through binary oppositions. Under patriarchy women are constructed as nurturers, compliant wives and mothers, the moral touchstones of society, and the violent woman disrupts these gender expectations. Male violence can be said to be normalised an acknowledged and arguably acceptable response to stress. There are multiple narratives around men and violence, many of them heroic. Perhaps no one more successfully breaks through the confines of being ‘female’ than the woman who kills.
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December 2022
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