One of the Guys: Women as Aggressors and Torturers

book: One of the Guys: Women as Aggressors and Torturers

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One of the Guys: W...

	One of the Guys: Women as Aggressors and Torturers Seal Press, 2006 - 300 pages average customer review:based on 1 review view larger image
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The debate about women and torture has, until recently, focused on women as victims of violence. But when photographs were released from the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal, one featured Lynndie England holding a prisoner by a dog leash. Overnight, she became a symbol of women's capacity to inflict pain and suffering ? and soon, many in America were questioning why the infliction of violence has always been seen as inherently male. One of the Guys deals specifically with this issue.
In her foreword, Barbara Ehrenreich wonders why she once assumed women possessed an innate aversion to violence. Her essay then serves as a launching point for the rest of the contributors, which include academics, journalists, and activists, each grappling with women's involvement in torture and the abuse of power.
The essays in One of the Guys challenge and examine the expectations placed on women while attempting to understand female perpetrators of abuse and torture in a broader context.

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Gripping

If you are open to honest evaluations of the so-called "few bad apples," then you'll find this book worth reading.

The anthology opens with an essay by Barbara Ehrenriech, where she admits her shock that women were torturers. Her essay drips with essentialist tendencies, yet I think many would nod their heads in agreement thinking that "women are better than this, women would change the ethos in the military."

Many of the other essays avoid the essentialist trope and address the hegemonic masculinity in the military and how the top down approach influences the culture. Other essays look at the issue of class, race, nativist politics and more.

The book has a few more theoretical pieces that really added to the volume (these are in the last third or so of the text). Cynthia Enloe's aftwerword is a must read, as well.

The book is written for a learned lay audience and would work well in the classroom. I think I'm going to adopt it for my Gender and Politics class.

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