RG 12

English W170
Representations of Vikings

RG 12: Kimmel, The Gender of Violence

1) What relationship between violence and gender does Kimmel posit? What does he
mean by ideologies of gender? How is this different from claiming that men are
simply more inherently violent than women?
Kimmel states that the majority of violent actions or crimes in todays society are
committed by mostly males. By ideologies of gender, Kimmel is referring to the
traits that are typically possessed by a female or male that more than likely influence
their violent behavior. It appears to be presented as a theory rather than a claim, but
provides a substantial amount of evidence behind it.
2) At the bottom of p. 270, Kimmel lists a lengthy resume of those against whom
women tend to be violent; he then calls such claims misreadings of the data. At the
top of 271, he goes on to say that, Whats more interesting is that while both claims
may be politically useful to whom? Revisit the list of victims of female violence and
map out how these two claims might be politically useful. Do you notice any
commonalities among the types of victims here? Is there a pattern behind the
accusation levelled against violent women in the wake of feminism?
Kimmel states that these statistics would be politically useful to those who, want to
return women to the natural place in the home. Some commonalities among the
types of victims is their targeting of children, family, and the elderly. The pattern of
this accusation seems to be misleadingly worded facts that mainly portray to one
specific victim group that accounts for a very small percentage of committed crimes
overall.

3) In what ways do you see Thor and Loki working to subvert our cultures assumptions
about violence and gender? What, according to the graphic novel, do honor and
money have to do with this dynamic?
Thor and Loki subvert this assumption by portraying the majority of the female
population in this novel as ruthless, barbaric criminals who account for the majority
of violent acts, unlike what is stated in the statistics of Kimmels accusation. Honor
appears to be the common theme amongst the morally correct men in this novel,
whereas money is associated with the evil antagonist female population in the story.

4) Finally, Kimmel ends his chapter with a conclusion that calls for change: political
change as well as cultural change surrounding violence, aggression, and gender. How
do you see a text like Thor and Loki interacting with the call to change? Do you think
the graphic novel has the potential to be helpful or harmful to our culture as we begin
rethinking gendered dynamics of violence?

Thor and Loki interacts with the call to change by somewhat displaying the opposite
of what the normal outcome is in our society by portraying the female population as
the overwhelmingly violent side. It displays men who live by a moral code of honor
and women who live by an immoral code that revolves around wealth. I think the
graphic novel has the potential to be helpful by displaying the possibility of the swap
in gender roles concerning violence, and how men can just as well be as morally
sound as women are portrayed to be in todays society by Kimmels statistics, rather
than hormone-crazed murderers.