Kill the body, the head will fall Book

In the wake of the Casey Anthony verdict I've been rereading and recommending this important, provocative look at women, aggression and violence. Originally released in 1996 it remains tremendously relevant, perhaps even more so.

From Booklist:

Denfeld, an amateur boxer who was the first woman to win the Tacoma Golden Gloves tournament in 1995, is uniquely qualified to write a book on women and aggression. She had taken up boxing at age 26 as a challenging and healthy hobby but soon found that it made her question many of her own and society's assumptions about violence and aggression as intrinsically male traits. Women are supposed to be naturally nonviolent and passive. However, Denfeld sees aggression as a "human condition, not confined to one sex." Citing research on women and crime, child abuse, spousal abuse, and women in the military, she supplements her findings with stories of her boxing experiences--training in an all-male gym, sparring with teenage and preteen partners, and her first fight with a woman boxer who could throw punches better than most men. This calmly reasoned yet engrossing book may alter your opinions not only about boxing as a sport but also about the nature and extent of differences between the sexes. George Eberhart