ChipChick Asks: Are Women with Guns Fantasy Figures or Empowered?
Posted on March 7, 2012 by Natalie in News
I would like to get your thoughts on this piece. Though I may disagree with some of the phrasing in the article, the question the author poses is a valid one with complicated answers. Care to share your thoughts? Hit us up in the comments section.
Gunning for it: Are Women with Guns Fantasy Figures or Empowered?
It’s hard to know where to start assigning blame for the popularization of women in gun culture. Do we say it’s when Tomb Raider was first launched in 1996 (which then spawned Angelina Jolie in booty shorts clutching two pistols with deadly abandon) or should we move further back in time to Sarah Connor’s kick ass moves in Terminator 2, or shall we just resign ourselves to the fact that as long as there have been firearms, men AND women have both been involved with them?
A little digging actually reveals that a magazine entitled Women and Guns was launched in 1989 and still continues today (in fact they’ve just had their 23rd anniversary issue) so this clearly is a continuing trend, yet for some reason the role of a woman with a gun continues to be one that pervades our culture with a certain amount of uncomfortable feelings. This isn’t helped by the film industry and their fascination with equipping women with machinery- director Jean-Luc Godard is unhelpfully quoted as saying, ‘All you need to make a film is a girl and a gun’.
Maybe the issue with women and guns is that women are traditionally the weaker sex and a gun levels the playing field, or could it even be some bigoted view that women aren’t capable of using a gun correctly as they won’t be able to handle it?
Women in gun culture is an uneasy place as they straddle both male fantasy roles, male bigotry and the somewhat uncomfortable feeling that a ‘lifegiver’ is now a harbinger of death. However, considering violent crime and assaults against women are rising year by year, is it so shocking that a women should take up arms to defend themselves?
GirlsGuide NOTE: The statistics in the following paragraph are a bit misrepresented. There are many reasons why these numbers are misleading including the comparison of different years, geographical factors, immigration laws, gangs, etc. Also, England is roughly the size of Louisiana with a population of 62,218,761. The US has 311,591,917. Just Sayin. OK-Read on.
My perspective on gun culture may differ from that of many Americans, as I’m a British citizen, and guns are very rare in the UK. The majority of our police force doesn’t carry a gun, and we don’t even really use tasers here (which are illegal to all but law enforcers) and the police are instead equipped with a truncheon (yes, I’m aware that’s basically a stick). However, as laughable as that may seem, in 2006-2007 there were 59 firearm related homicides in the UK. Compare this to the USA’s homicide level in 2010, where 8,775 murders were caused by firearms. To me it seems a simple equation- make guns less prevalent in a society and crime will be lower. However, I know that a gun used safely and correctly can be a valuable tool, and that retraining minds that follow the 2nd amendments ‘right to bear arms’ to the letter will not be an easy task.
TO read the full article, click here:
http://www.chipchick.com/2012/03/women-guns.html
4 Responses to “ChipChick Asks: Are Women with Guns Fantasy Figures or Empowered?”
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March 15, 2012
[...] week we posted this article found over at ChipChick.com. Looks like our friends at NRA Radio saw the same piece and located the [...]
Not all girl with guns movies are created equal, but you do notice some trends– a lot of them get the gun things wrong (as they do in many action movies). And the woman running around with the gun usually is a certain age and appearance and may be wearing skimpy clothing that would make a perfect trap for all of that hot brass that should be spilling out of her firearm. I think the film Miss Representation did a good job of explaining how this trope is used to exploit women. Go back and look at some of these films with the “male gaze” in mind. It’s not just some term thrown about by gender studies academics– it matters and its interesting to see who makes these movies and who they are primarily marketed to.
I agree with Amy. It definitely is in the expression. The world-lauded beauty Angelina Jolie was truly a knife-toting tough-chick in real life when Tomb Raider was filmed, but they still stuffed her bra. Speaking for myself, and perhaps over-reaching by speaking for the fellow-female-firearms enthusiasts with whom I associate, I feel empowered. I look at it as exercising my right to bear arms and if I have a good time while learning how to do so safely and effectively, even better. Very few of us are in competitive shooting or hunting. We’re inner-city ladies with range memberships, modest handguns we know how to use, and a thorough knowledge of gun safety and gun laws, God-forbid we ever have to use a weapon defensively. Doesn’t mean we don’t get cat-calls buying ammo, sometimes treated poorly by an insensitive (ignorant) store clerk, or the usual “hot-chick” remarks from the men in our lives (and who doesn’t like a well-paid compliment?). I have a Bachelor of Arts in Gender Studies from Arizona State University. Really want to be an empowered femme-fatale? Don’t give a sh*t and don’t take any sh*t, from anyone. That will have a bigger impact than your caliber against anyone trying to reduce you down to your body carrying a shiny toy.
Reality is that most women are smaller and less muscular than the average man. I am a gun owner and carry continuously because of this. One of the many roles of women is to protect their family and a firearm allows this to be possible for many. Even if it is becoming more acceptable for a women to carry because men think it’s “hot” who cares, at least it is becoming socially acceptable and therefore more prevalent. As long as all gun owners take the responsibility seriously and get the proper training then it doesn’t matter to me how we are getting it done. I do worry about the portrayal of guns though. In a culture where young kids see video games where people get back up after being shot, I can see it hard for some to take it seriously. As a gun owner (and a EMT) I had to ask myself if I could live with the consequences of killing another. What I find most interesting is that more women think about this then men. If a woman carries she usually takes it seriously. The average woman prays that she never has to use her weapon but is willing to do the training so she knows how. I worry about men more. From my experience there seems to be is a much higher percentage of men that are willing to carry without training then there are women.