Debate about women and torture has, until recently, focused on women as victims of violence. But when photographs were released from the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal, one featured Lynndie England holding a prisoner by a dog leash. Overnight, she became a symbol of women's capacity to inflict pain and suffering, and soon, many in America were questioning why the infliction of violence has always been seen as inherently male. One of the Guys deals specifically with this issue.
In her foreword, Barbara Ehrenreich wonders why she once assumed women possessed an innate aversion to violence. Her essay then serves as a launching point for the rest of the contributors, which include academics, journalists, and activists, each grappling with women's involvement in the abuse of power and torture.
The essays in One of the Guys challenge and examine the expectations placed on women while attempting to understand female perpetrators of abuse and torture in a broader context.
List of Contributors include:
Eve Ensler
Elizabeth L. Hillman, Professor at Rutgers
Karen J. Greenberg, Executive Director of the Center on Law and Security at NYU School of Law and the editor of the NYU Review of Law and Security
Kristine Huskey, attorney and adjunct profession at George Washington University Law Shool
John Sifton, attorney and researcher at Human Rights Watch
Caroline Elkins, author of Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya (Henry Holt, Jan. 2005), Assistant Professor of History, Harvard
Janis Karpinski, author of One Woman's Army: the Commanding General of Abu Ghraid Tells Her Story.
Lila Rajiva, author of The Language of Empire: Abu Ghraib and the American Media
Jessica Stern, author of Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill (Harper Perennial 2004)
Asra Nomani, author of Standing Alone in Mecca: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul fo Islam (Harper San Francisco 2005)
Jumana Musa, Amnesty International Director
Erin Solaro, author of Women in the Line of Fire (Seal 2006)
Riva Khoshaba, Syrian American attorney from Yale
Aziz Z. Huq, associate cousel to the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice
Afterword by Cynthia Enloe, research Professor at Clark University and author of The Curious Feminist: Searching for Women in a New Age of Empire, among other works
About Tara McKelvey
Tara McKelvey is a senior editor at The American Prospect and author of a forthcoming book about private contractors accused of torture at Abu Ghraib (Carroll & Graff, 2007). She has held positions as senior editor for Marie Claire and Mademoiselle and has written for numerous publications, including USA Today, Spin, Slate, The New York Times, and The Nation. She lives in Washington, DC.