Kill the Body, the Head Will Fall

February 2, 1997
Denfeld (The New Victorians) began boxing on the amateur level in 1993 and two years later won a Golden Gloves championship. Opening with a survey of technique, followed by an apologia for the sport and an account of her first sparring session, she then develops her principal thesis: women sometimes can be as aggressive and as violent as men. In support of this contention, she examines anger in the female; abuse and violence committed by women against children or adults with whom they have relationships; female criminals; and females in the military and in sports. Although few will disagree with her view that the differences between men and women are not as significant as has been thought, the book will raise some hackles. At a time when many psychologists are arguing that the "masculinizing" of boys and young men can create more problems than it solves, Denfeld's unspoken assumption that females can be just as macho as males may not win universal approval. Fight fans will find her views on the sport of interest. Author tour.

January 1, 1997
Denfeld, an amateur boxer who was the first woman to win the Tacoma Golden Gloves tournament in 1995, is uniquely qualified to write a book on women and aggression. She had taken up boxing at age 26 as a challenging and healthy hobby but soon found that it made her question many of her own and society's assumptions about violence and aggression as intrinsically male traits. Women are supposed to be naturally nonviolent and passive. However, Denfeld sees aggression as a "human condition, not confined to one sex." Citing research on women and crime, child abuse, spousal abuse, and women in the military, she supplements her findings with stories of her boxing experiences--training in an all-male gym, sparring with teenage and preteen partners, and her first fight with a woman boxer who could throw punches better than most men. This calmly reasoned yet engrossing book may alter your opinions not only about boxing as a sport but also about the nature and extent of differences between the sexes. ((Reviewed January 1 & 15, 1997))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1997, American Library Association.)