Behind the Mask

This boldly original book explores the origins, meanings, and forms of women's aggression. Drawing from in-depth interviews with sixty women of different ages and ethnic and class backgrounds--police officers, attorneys, substance abusers, homemakers, artists--Dana Jack provides a rich account of how women explain (or explain away) their own hidden or actual acts of hurt to others. With sensitivity but without sentimentality, Jack gives readers a range of compelling stories of how women channel, either positively or destructively, their own powerful force and of how they resist and retaliate in the face of others' aggression in a society that expects women to be yielding, empathetic, and supportive.Arguing that aggression arises from failures in relationships, Jack portrays the many forms that women's aggression can take, from veiled approaches used to resist, control, and take vengeance on others, to aggression that reflects despair, to aggression that may be a hopeful sign of new strength. Throughout the book, Jack shows the positive sides of aggression as women struggle with internal and external demons, reconnect with others, and create the courage to stand their ground. This work broadens our understanding of aggression as an interpersonal phenomenon rooted in societal expectations, and offers exciting new approaches for exploring the variations of this vexing human experience.

This book explores the origins, meaning, and forms of women's experience of their own aggression. Drawing from in-depth interviews with 60 women of different ages, and ethnic and class backgrounds, Dana Jack provides a rich account of how women explain (or explain away) their own feelings and acts of rage and violence. She shows the positive sides of women's aggression, and the potential for destructive aggression to be transformed., Behind the Mask is based on interviews the author conducted with 60 women, ages 17-75, mostly from the Pacific Northwest. Jack was surprised to hear how women in her study defined the range of experiences they considered 'aggressive,' from saying what they think or using a certain tone of voice, to physical assault...Some of the stories seem innocuous, but they speak to the pervasive (and justified) fears women have of negative social responses: a police officer toned down her feelings of exuberance after physically subduing two shoplifters, not wishing to appear to her male colleagues as if she enjoyed it too much. A college rower enjoyed feeling aggressive in workouts, challenged male professors for sexism, and even carried a gun when riding her horse on back roads, but raised her voice only once in four years with her boyfriend, for fear of alienating him. An obstetrical surgeon was warned by hospital administrators to refrain from 'improper behavior' that could be interpreted by other staff as hostile because she gave direct orders during surgery, rather than requests., An adept and sympathetic interviewer as well as a perceptive and talented writer, Jack relates the stories of women who span the range of age, class and ethnic background to give a full picture of how women perceive aggression in our culture...In our society, she writes, the myth is that men are naturally aggressive and women are naturally and innately unaggressive, which leaves women to seek outlets for their anger in 'sneaky' ways. It is hoped that this illuminating and very intelligent work will help dismantle that mythology, so that women can be seen, and heard, as they are., Jack, who offered important insights in Silencing the Self, explores another facet of women's psychology--women's experience of their own aggression. She argues that both depression and aggression originate in disconnection, and that aggression is fundamentally relational rather than intrapersonal in character...Jack explores provocative subjects such as the societal taboos on female use of aggression; the collusion of psychology with molding conforming female behavior; and the double bind faced by women whose career path requires use of aggressive behavior., This study challenges traditional views of aggression as a simple destructive impulse of a personal trait that is predominantly male. For women, Jack finds, aggression arises out of a need or desire to establish intimate connections with others. She deftly combines a feminist power perspective with psychological insights to explain a wide variety of societal problems like sexual harassment, eating disorders, depression, difficulties for women in traditional male occupations, and domestic violence...This original, extensively referenced analysis broadens our understanding of aggression.

Dana Crowley Jack, a psychologist, teaches at Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies, Western Washington University.