monster.

I just finished watching the movie Monster, which is the story of Aileen Wuornos, the prostitute who was a serial killer. She was executed in FL in October 2002. I remember this because I was actually living in South Florida at the time, and knew of Wuornos from my Women's Studies classes, and when I read that she was being executed, it caught my eye. If you've ever seen the movie, it is a very tricky thing, because not only is it excellently done, but it also actually portrays her as not exactly the monster you'd expect her to be. And I know she's a serial killer, but it also makes you think. It makes you put the case in the larger societal context. It's interesting, because numerous police officers involved had to resign because they sold details of her case for movies and tv shows, and here's the even bigger kicker - Ted Bundy was even offered life in prison instead of execution - but Aileen was never given that option. I am not saying she was a good person. I know she was mentally ill. But I don't think it occurred in a vaccuum.  I just think it would be interesting to view her story from the lens of society - she was sexually and physically abused and raped from a young age, worked as a prostitute, first killed in self-defense.......She had a baby at age 13, who was given up for adoption, she lived in the woods at the end of her street for 2 years during that time, she was prostituting by 13 because she had no place to live and no money....that all has to take a toll on someone. I think female aggression is viewed in a much, much different way than male aggression - female aggression is much more hated than male aggression. It is seen as much more abnormal, much more dangerous. There seems to be a hatred toward violence committed by women that is not there when men do it - look at how society viewed Susan Smith, Andrea Yates - even today, look at how we see Casey Anthony. Believe me, I cannot fathom how anyone could ever hurt, much less kill, their children. But I do think that female aggression and violence carries much more derision than male violence, and that Wuornos's case is illustrative of this. I think because we see women as inherent nurturers, and when that goes awry, we're left with this thing that doesn't quite fit into our schema of how things are supposed to be.