Women's War
Women's War

Author: Stephanie McCurry

Publisher: Belknap Press

Published: 2021-03

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 9780674251403

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"A stunning portrayal of a tragedy endured and survived by women." --David W. Blight, author of Frederick Douglass "Readers expecting hoop-skirted ladies soothing fevered soldiers' brows will not find them here...It explodes the fiction that men fight wars while women idle on the sidelines." --Washington Post "As McCurry points out in this gem of a book, many historians who view the American Civil War as a 'people's war' nevertheless neglect the actions of half the people." --James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom "In this brilliant exposition of the politics of the seemingly personal, McCurry illuminates previously unrecognized dimensions of the war's elemental impact." --Drew Gilpin Faust, author of This Republic of Suffering The idea that women are outside of war is a powerful myth in western culture, one that shaped the Civil War and still determines how we write about it today. Through three dramatic stories that span the course of the war, this groundbreaking reconsideration invites us to see America's bloodiest conflict for what it was: not just a brothers' war but a women's war. When Union soldiers faced the unexpected threat of female partisans, saboteurs, and spies, long held assumptions about the innocence of enemy women were suddenly thrown into question. Stephanie McCurry shows how the case of Clara Judd, imprisoned for treason, transformed the writing of Lieber's Code, leading to lasting changes in the laws of war. Black women's fight for freedom had no place in the Union military's emancipation plans. Facing a massive problem of governance as former slaves fled to their ranks, officers re-classified black women as "soldiers' wives"--whether or not they were married--placing new obstacles on their path to freedom. Finally, Women's War offers a new perspective on the epic human drama of Reconstruction through the story of one slaveholding woman, Gertrude Thomas, whose losses went well beyond the material to intimate matters of family, love, and belonging. Thomas's response mixed grief with rage, recasting white supremacy in new, still relevant, terms.

Fighting Visibility
Fighting Visibility

Author: Jennifer McClearen

Publisher: University of Illinois Press

Published: 2021-03-30

Total Pages: 291

ISBN-13: 0252052633

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Ultimate Fighting Championship and the present and future of women's sports Mixed martial arts stars like Amanda Nunes, Zhang Weili, and Ronda Rousey have made female athletes top draws in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Jennifer McClearen charts how the promotion incorporates women into its far-flung media ventures and investigates the complexities surrounding female inclusion. On the one hand, the undeniable popularity of cards headlined by women add much-needed diversity to the sporting landscape. On the other, the UFC leverages an illusion of promoting difference—whether gender, racial, ethnic, or sexual—to grow its empire with an inexpensive and expendable pool of female fighters. McClearen illuminates how the UFC's half-hearted efforts at representation generate profit and cultural cachet while covering up the fact it exploits women of color, lesbians, gender non-conforming women, and others. Thought provoking and timely, Fighting Visibility tells the story of how a sports entertainment phenomenon made difference a part of its brand—and the ways women paid the price for success.

Seconds Out
Seconds Out

Author: Alison Dean

Publisher: Coach House Books

Published: 2021-05-25

Total Pages: 294

ISBN-13: 177056666X

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Kicking ass and taking notes—what it’s like to be a woman in the ring. Alison Dean teaches English literature. She also punches people. Hard. But despite several amateur fights under her belt, she knows she will never be taken as seriously as a male boxer. “You punch like a girl” still isn’t a compliment — women aren’t supposed to choose to participate in violence. Her unique perspective as a 30-something university lecturer turned amateur fighter allows Dean to articulately and with great insight delve into the ways martial arts can change a person’s — and particularly a woman’s — relationship to their body and to the world around them, and at the same time considers the ways in which women might change martial arts. Combining historical research, anecdotal experience, and interviews with coaches and fighters, Seconds Out explores our culture’s relationship with violence, and particularly with violence practiced by women. "An important addition to women’s martial arts scholarship, Dean provides personal insight into the radical space women occupy in sport fighting. Seconds Out is a must-read for all fighters looking for mentors in the complicated world of martial arts." —L.A. Jennings, author of Mixed Martial Arts: A History from Ancient Fighting Sports to the UFC "Dean brings a fresh new female voice to the topic of combat sports." —Trevor Wittman, renowned MMA trainer, UFC analyst, and founder of ONX Sports "Trained in the discipline and art of both fighting and literature, Dean combines both with style. She honors the fighters, writers, and historians who have come before her and definitively ends the idea of women fighters as a novelty. Seconds Out is a must-read for anyone who feels the call of the bell and reverence for a good fight." —Sue Jaye Johnson

She's a Knockout!
She's a Knockout!

Author: L.A. Jennings

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2014-10-23

Total Pages: 223

ISBN-13: 1442236442

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Women’s fighting sports have a rich and storied history. As far back as the eighteenth century, female fighters battled at varying levels, from county fairs to elite events. With new opportunities to compete in legitimate arenas—from the Olympics and the Golden Gloves to wrestling tournaments and Ultimate Fighting Championships—women are now able to fight in ways their predecessors never could. And though women today still often face the same derision their predecessors faced, their fortitude and determination has earned them respect from much of the fighting community. In She’s a Knockout!: A History of Women in Fighting Sports, L.A. Jenningschronicles the stories of these strong and resilient women—including wrestlers, mixed martial arts competitors, and boxers—and the different issues they have encountered. Throughout the narrative, Jennings situates the stories of the female fighters in the culture of their time, revealing how women were often seen as objects of spectacle and ridicule before finally garnering admiration in the fighting world. The women featured in this book include England’s “Championess” Elizabeth Stokes of the 1720s, American wrestler Cora Livingstone in the 1930s, and early MMA great Debi Purcell in the 2000s. Featuring historical and contemporary photographs and exclusive interviews with professional fighters, this book delivers an in-depth look into the struggles and triumphs of female fighters. Fans of fighting sports, sports historians, and those interested in the history of women in sports will find this a fascinating and illuminating read.

Fighting Hislam
Fighting Hislam

Author: Susan Carland

Publisher: Melbourne Univ. Publishing

Published: 2017-05-01

Total Pages: 143

ISBN-13: 0522870368

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The Muslim community that is portrayed to the West is a misogynist’s playground; within the Muslim community, feminism is often regarded with sneering hostility. Yet between those two views there is a group of Muslim women many do not believe exists: a diverse bunch who fight sexism from within, as committed to the fight as they are to their faith. Hemmed in by Islamophobia and sexism, they fight against sexism with their minds, words and bodies. Often, their biggest weapon is their religion. Here, Carland talks with Muslim women about how they are making a stand for their sex, while holding fast to their faith. At a time when the media trumpets scandalous revelations about life for women from Saudi Arabia to Indonesia, Muslim women are always spoken about and over, never with. In Fighting Hislam, that ends.

Women Willing to Fight
Women Willing to Fight

Author: Silke Andris

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2009-01-23

Total Pages: 217

ISBN-13: 1443804762

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Women Willing to Fight is a collection of essays that explores the presence of the fighting woman in contemporary Hollywood cinema. Drawn from a variety of genres, the authors examine the changing role, image and position of this figure in film over recent decades. The increasing dominance of this character and her repositioning as a protagonist reinvigorates discussion concerning the dynamics of film narrative and spectacle. Each contribution takes as its focus a central character from the Hollywood blockbuster era, examining in detail the motivations and implications of the fighting female. In doing so the collection raises significant questions about the place of the fighting woman in contemporary media and the relationships she forges on and off-screen. With a strong appreciation of the mixed messages inherent in images of fighting women, Women Willing to Fight seeks to draw attention to the embodied forms - physical, intellectual and emotional - through which female fighters are represented. The anthology places particular emphasis on the emergence of the physically empowered woman, a character for whom the body has become a weapon and a target. While early cinematic representations allowed women to voice their fury and frustration, today’s female fighters not only ‘speak up’ but ‘muscle up’. Putting aside the supernatural powers of many action heroines, this volume focuses on the kinds of fighting skills, abilities and desires that are engendered in characterisations of mortal women. To this end the volume implicitly addresses complex and cross-cultural notions of ‘extra-ordinary’ power. By examining the embodied arsenal that these characters possess and develop - through training, conditioning, and life experience - it considers the representation of motivation and metamorphoses into ‘the fighting woman’: how a woman fights holds implicit meaning and inevitably urges us to consider why and what she is fighting for.

Fighting Women
Fighting Women

Author: Victoria Katherine Burbank

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2024-07-26

Total Pages: 270

ISBN-13: 0520414454

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Fighting is common among contemporary Aboriginal women in Mangrove, Australia. Women fight with men and with other women—often with “the other woman.” Victoria Burbank’s depiction of these women offers a powerful new perspective that can be applied to domestic violence in Western settings. Noting that Aboriginal women not only talk without shame about their angry emotions but also express them in acts of aggression and defense, Burbank emphasizes the positive social and cultural implications of women’s refusal to be victims. She explores questions of hierarchy and the expression of emotions, as well as women’s roles in domestic violence. Human aggression can be experienced and expressed in different ways, she says, and is not necessarily always “wrong.” Fighting Women is relevant to discussions of aggression and gender relations in addition to debates on the victimization of women and children everywhere. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1994.

Fighting Women
Fighting Women

Author: Victoria Katherine Burbank

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2024-07-26

Total Pages: 271

ISBN-13: 0520377680

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Fighting is common among contemporary Aboriginal women in Mangrove, Australia. Women fight with men and with other women—often with “the other woman.” Victoria Burbank’s depiction of these women offers a powerful new perspective that can be applied to domestic violence in Western settings. Noting that Aboriginal women not only talk without shame about their angry emotions but also express them in acts of aggression and defense, Burbank emphasizes the positive social and cultural implications of women’s refusal to be victims. She explores questions of hierarchy and the expression of emotions, as well as women’s roles in domestic violence. Human aggression can be experienced and expressed in different ways, she says, and is not necessarily always “wrong.” Fighting Women is relevant to discussions of aggression and gender relations in addition to debates on the victimization of women and children everywhere. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1994.

Fight Like a Girl...and Win
Fight Like a Girl...and Win

Author: Lori Hartman Gervasi

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2007-08-21

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 9780312357726

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LEARN HOW TO INCREASE YOUR SECURITY, OUTSMART THE BAD GUY, AND EMPOWER YOURSELF WITH 26 SELF-DEFENSE DECISIONS THAT COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE.