this may take awhile, and is, for the most part, rambling and self-indulgent, but....

 

I am in complete agreement with Douglas Vanderhoof's assertion that he sees quite a lot of "pleasure in cruelty on woman's parts." To deny it seems absurd, and means that one has to be willing to ignore Goneril and Regan, the look of pleasure on Jane Greer's face while she watches Mitchum and his ex-partner brawl ( Out of the Past)...and then she shoots; Carrie, Heathers, it goes on and on.

 

And what about, to borrow a phrase, an "adolescent...initiation" for women ? The bloody puberty, an endless negotiation with a body that will do what it wants, regardless of how one might feel about it...does one want to be a nice girl, or does one tear down what the superego has kept back, and revel in cruelty, in the pleasure that it might afford (aga! in, Carrie and Heathers) provide excellent examples of this.

 

However, there still seems to be a kind of puzzlement when confronted by women who align themselves with cruelty, and the possibility that there might be enjoyment in that alignment.

 

Sarah Nichols