Fighting Women: Anger and Aggression in Aboriginal Australia

is common among contemporary Aboriginal women in Mangrove, Australiawomen fight with men and with other women. 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 emotions of anger 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. Timely and controversial, Fighting Women will stimulate discussion of aggression and gender relations and will enlarge the debate on the victimization of women and children everywhere.