Nasty Women: Toward a New Narrative on Female Aggression

Abstract

This paper addresses the complex relationship between women and aggression: one that is troubled by numerous cultural biases that pressure women to be nice, to avoid self-assertion, and to never get angry. These forces have silenced women throughout time, reflecting a powerful patriarchy that has existed for centuries. I begin with a personal vignette reflecting struggles with aggression, followed by two clinical examples in which my female patients were able to mobilize aggression for constructive use. I also explore cultural and developmental factors that inhibit women’s aggression and discuss the ways therapy can help women integrate a healthy aggression. References to the 2016 presidential election and the 2018 Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing of Justice Brett Kavanaugh are included as examples of the powerful psychological and sociocultural factors that infiltrate women’s struggles with aggression. Integrating these elements tempers the tendency of psychoanalysis to separate the individual from the social, the intrapsychic from the political, and the private from the public.

Keywords:

• women
• aggression
• cultural biases
• assertion
• election
• patriarchy

Notes

1 Others, however, disagree, asserting that, rather than gender, the flaw resided in Clinton herself. Critics point to her reported vindictiveness against women who had accused her husband of sexual misconduct and her purported enabling and defense of his behavior. They argue that these actions destroyed Clinton’s status as a defender of women’s rights and combatant against sexual harassment. But, as with so much about the 2016 race, this critique resonated strongly with those who already opposed Clinton, without moving the needle among her supporters who believed it was wrong to hold her responsible for her husband’s actions (Riddell, 2016).

2 Robin Givhan in The Daily Beast (2013) writes: “Thatcher didn’t need to wield a gavel. She could place her bag on the table to announce her presence. This swaggering announcement of womanhood was a way to consume space and demand attention. It marked her territory. To be sideswiped by Thatcher was to be “handbagged.”

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Janet R. Zuckerman

Janet R. Zuckerman, Ph.D., is former Director, Faculty and Clinical Consultant at the Westchester Center for the Study of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy; Clinical Consultant at the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis; and Adjunct Clinical Supervisor at the Derner Institute, Adelphi University and Ferkauf Graduate School, Yeshiva University.