A Woman's Role

Following up on my recent blog about women being the primary victims of bad driving, as a mystery author I have to note (and acknowledge) that women are in fact more often than not the primary victims of pretty much all violent behavior, worldwide--not just traffic violence--whether from a major war in Afghanistan or a local domestic dispute in Topeka.

And how many of such events are, or ever were, triggered by women?

Granted Anne Boleyn was of dubious character, and some people died due to her machinations and manipulations. And you can come up with your own examples. But there is only one female serial killer (one!) on record, in the U.S.A. Her name was Aileen Wuornos, and she killed a series of creeps on I-95 in Florida back in the '80s who tried to pick her up. And she got executed for it. And she was completely insane, not that it matters. But this singular women killer killed creeps, mind you. Not naive housewives, or girls in bars. Was she bad? Sure. But compare her to, say, Gary Ridgway, the Green River killer who operated south of Seattle, didn't get executed, and now claims to have killed 80 women, most of whose offenses (to him) consisted of being 'loose' women: the kind of women loose enough to associate with a seemingly lonesome guy who hangs out in bars: namely, Gary Ridgway. Who looks like a the guy sitting in the next pew in church (and probably was). Go figure.

And how many Anne Boleyns has history given us, compared to all the Genghis Khans, Stalins, Hitlers, Maos, and innumerable lesser murderous tyrants: virtually all of whom were male. As were virtually all of their hosts of executioners, who were also all too often rapists and pillagers acting on behalf of one regime or another, down through history, virtually of of which were male dominated.

Are there bad women out there? Of course. There was Aileen Wuornos. But take any hundred violent acts in this world and I would wager well over 90 of them are perpetrated by men; and a sizable number of those violent acts target women.

Women are traditional victims in mystery fiction, of course, although probably less than half of the murder victims in books are women (full disclosure: in the interests of equality I have written a couple of women perpetrators as well as victims in my books, as well). For the record, my most recent book, RED TIDE, has two women victims, and no female perpetrators whatsoever. I prefer my women to be heroic, for the most part. Or at worst passive aggressive.

But then I am fond of women. Always have been. They truly are the better half of humanity.