Gun Women: Firearms and Feminism in Contemporary America

by Mary Zeiss Stange, Carol K. Oyster

Overview

Women, we are told, should not own guns. Women, we are told, are more likely to be injured by their own guns than to fend off an attack themselves. This "fact" is rooted in a fundamental assumption of female weakness and vulnerability. Why should a woman not be every bit as capable as a man of using a firearm in self-defense?
And yet the reality is that millions of American women—somewhere between 11,000,000 and 17,000,000—use guns confidently and competently every day. Women are hunting, using firearms in their work as policewomen and in the military, shooting for sport, and arming themselves for personal security in ever-increasing numbers. What motivates women to possess firearms? What is their relationship to their guns? And who exactly are these women? Crucially, can a woman be a gun-owner and a feminist too?
Women's growing tendency to arm themselves has in recent years been political fodder for both the right and the left. Female gun owners are frequently painted as "trying to be like men" (the conservative perspective) or "capitulating to patriarchal ideas about power" (the liberal critique). Eschewing the polar extremes in the heated debate over gun ownership and gun control, and linking firearms and feminism in novel fashion, Mary Zeiss Stange and Carol K. Oyster here cut through the rhetoric to paint a precise and unflinching account of America's gun women.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814797600
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	09/01/2000
Series:	Fast Track Bks.
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	278
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.92(d)

About the Author

Mary Zeiss Stange is Associate Professor of Religion and Women's Studies at Skidmore College and author of Woman the Hunter.

Carol K. Oyster is Professor of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse and author of Groups: A User's Guide.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"As one of the 'normal, well-balanced [female] adults' who own guns and as one of the 10 percent of hunters who are women, I applaud this eye-opening, complex, challenging book, a frank account of why we hunt and why we love guns which effectively punctures the myths about women, hunting, and guns."

-Diane Humphrey Lueck,University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Outreach Specialist, International Becoming an Outdoors-Woman Program

"The first feminist manifesto on women and guns. Closely reasoned, meticulously researched, yet accessibly written, this book's appeal spans the entire political spectrum. It will enlighten committed pacifists and feminists no less than advocates of self-defense, with its theme that so long as women are perceived—and perceive themselves—as too weak to defend themselves, non-violence is not a choice, but merely a culturally assigned role."

-Don B. Kates,coauthor The Great American Gun Debate

"Gun Women explores the relationship between firearms and women from many perspectives, both historical and modern, while also acknowledging the role guns have had in shaping our national character. The authors continually remind us that women who own guns are not the victims of their own fear of being attacked nor of the efforts of the firearm industry to market to them. Introducing "gun women" as intelligent, capable people, this book breaks down the gender and political stereotypes that people have about women who use guns."

-Shari LeGate,Executive Director, Women's Shooting Sports Foundation

"What should people do when they must face a criminal by themselves? Passive behavior is certainly not the safest course of action. Stange and Oyster take on the hard questions about women's fears of—and use of—guns, in virtually every imaginable context. They convincingly show that these fears are more likely to endanger women's lives and those they love than they are to save them."

-John R. Lott, Jr., -John R. Lott Jr.,Senior Research Scholar, School of Law, Yale University, and author of More Guns, Less Crime

"A lively mix of memoir, cultural and historical analysis, statistics, and cross-generational profiles of women who shoot
—blasting the notion that feminism and firearms are incompatible."

-Peace News

Editorial Reviews

"As one of the ‘normal, well-balanced [female] adults' who own guns and as one of the 10 percent of hunters who are women, I applaud this eye-opening, complex, challenging book, a frank account of why we hunt and why we love guns which effectively punctures the myths about women, hunting, and guns."

Diane Humphrey Lueck

"The first feminist manifesto on women and guns. Closely reasoned, meticulously researched, yet accessibly written, this book's appeal spans the entire political spectrum. It will enlighten committed pacifists and feminists no less than advocates of self-defense, with its theme that so long as women are perceivedand perceive themselvesas too weak to defend themselves, non-violence is not a choice, but merely a culturally assigned role."

Don B. Kates

"Gun Women explores the relationship between firearms and women from many perspectives, both historical and modern, while also acknowledging the role guns have had in shaping our national character. The authors continually remind us that women who own guns are not the victims of their own fear of being attacked nor of the efforts of the firearm industry to market to them. Introducing "gun women" as intelligent, capable people, this book breaks down the gender and political stereotypes that people have about women who use guns."

Shari LeGate

"A lively mix of memoir, cultural and historical analysis, statistics, and cross-generational profiles of women who shootblasting the notion that feminism and firearms are incompatible."

Peace News

"What should people do when they must face a criminal by themselves? Passive behavior is certainly not the safest course of action. Stange and Oyster take on the hard questions about women's fears ofand use ofguns, in virtually every imaginable context. They convincingly show that these fears are more likely to endanger women's lives and those they love than they are to save them."

John R. Lott Jr.

"As one of the 'normal, well-balanced [female] adults' who own guns and as one of the 10 percent of hunters who are women, I applaud this eye-opening, complex, challenging book, a frank account of why we hunt and why we love guns which effectively punctures the myths about women, hunting, and guns."

-Diane Humphrey Lueck,University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Outreach Specialist, International Becoming an Outdoors-Woman Program

"What should people do when they must face a criminal by themselves? Passive behavior is certainly not the safest course of action. Stange and Oyster take on the hard questions about women's fears of—and use of—guns, in virtually every imaginable context. They convincingly show that these fears are more likely to endanger women's lives and those they love than they are to save them."-John R. Lott Jr.,author of More Guns, Less Crime

"Gun Women explores the relationship between firearms and women from many perspectives, both historical and modern, while also acknowledging the role guns have had in shaping our national character. The authors continually remind us that women who own guns are not the victims of their own fear of being attacked nor of the efforts of the firearm industry to market to them. Introducing "gun women" as intelligent, capable people, this book breaks down the gender and political stereotypes that people have about women who use guns."

-Shari LeGate,Executive Director, Women's Shooting Sports Foundation

"The first feminist manifesto on women and guns. Closely reasoned, meticulously researched, yet accessibly written, this book's appeal spans the entire political spectrum. It will enlighten committed pacifists and feminists no less than advocates of self-defense, with its theme that so long as women are perceived—and perceive themselves—as too weak to defend themselves, non-violence is not a choice, but merely a culturally assigned role."

-Don B. Kates,coauthor The Great American Gun Debate

"A lively mix of memoir, cultural and historical analysis, statistics, and cross-generational profiles of women who shoot—blasting the notion that feminism and firearms are incompatible."-Peace News

From the Publisher

Stange and Oyster (religion and women's studies, Skidmore College and psychology, U. of Wisconsin-LaCrosse, respectively) describe their personal relationships to guns, express appreciation for the beauty and skill of shooting, and excoriate the hyperbole on either side of the debate over guns. While asserting the feminist aspects of gun ownership in slightly more nuanced terms than usual, the volume is perhaps too dependent on anecdote to answer the philosophical, psychological, and political questions it engages. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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