Author Takes on Aggressive Women
Written by Jan Jaben-Eilon Wednesday, December 01 2010
Snapshot: Maud Lavin
Maud Lavin, 56, is a professor of Visual and Critical Studies and Art History, Theory, and Criticism at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her books include: Cut with the Kitchen Knife, a study on the Berlin Dada artist Hannah Hoech; and Clean New World, about graphic design and politics.
Her latest book is Push Comes to Shove: New Images of Aggressive Women (MIT Press, 2010). She received a Guggenheim Fellowship for her research on the book.
Womenetics: Why did you decide to write this book?
Maud Lavin:Two main reasons. One is that I noticed all the biff-bam-pow stuff in mass culture about women – Xena, Buffy, Lara Croft. I was entertained, but also wondered what, if anything, this trend had to do with changes in women’s actual lives.
The other is that I was born and raised in a small to medium town – Canton, Ohio – in the 1950s so my early childhood was in the Mad Men era when gender roles seemed so rigid. And definitely women weren’t supposed to be aggressive to any degree.
So, again, given that original background, I was excited by this expansive set of depictions of aggressive women, but wondered if it was really part of loosening up what was acceptable, even fun, in women’s behavioral range today.
Womenetics: For what audience did you write it?
Lavin: I write cross-over books for general as well as academic audiences. It’s important to me to write in a lively, engaging way for a broad range of readers, particularly women curious about and involved in expanding opportunities for themselves and other women.
Womenetics: Did you focus on sports a lot in the book because that’s how young people learn to work as a team?
Lavin: Yes, and because I think that although the passage of Title IX and its uneven implementation in recent decades has been written about a lot – particularly in terms of the sports opportunities it’s opened up for girls in high school and women in college – what hasn’t been much written about is the cultural impact.
So I turned to that and the wave of women and sports movies, from the 1990s until now, coming out of Hollywood. Movies like Blue Crush, Bring It On, and Stick It. Sports, and even watching sports movies, is a key place to learn to balance individual aggression and teamwork.
Womenetics: How did Title IX, passed in 1972 to forbid the exclusion of women from sports activities in schools, impact the gender makeup of the corporate world today?
Lavin: I don’t have numbers on this, but there have been studies showing that playing sports has helped girls achieve at school and later as young women in the workplace. A good general study to start with is still the government’s 1997 study from the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, http://www.fitness.gov/girlssports.htm, and a solid recent study is Betsey Stevenson’s working paper of February 2010 for the National Bureau of Economic Research, http://bpp.wharton.upenn.edu/betseys/papers/TitleIX.pdf.
Womenetics: How do you think you were impacted by the fact that you were the only girl with three brothers?
Lavin: Well, as you know, the book is dedicated to my brothers. We grew up in the country outside Canton and were free to roughhouse and run around, and there wasn’t much if any division between their style of playing and mine.
We all played together. So I had some freedom in terms of puppyish aggressive play at that early age that was probably formative. That said, it’s not always that easy for me to be aggressive as an adult.
Womenetics: Do you consider yourself an aggressive person?
Lavin: Actually I’m conflicted about my own aggression as an adult. I try to exercise a healthy amount of aggression in the workplace and can be outspoken when necessary, but it’s a great effort for me. I tend to be somewhat shy and prefer time to write or hang out with family members or with gal pals. Speaking out in public and/or workplace situations is hard for me. But I do it.
Womenetics: Do you recall anytime when you weren’t aggressive enough?
Lavin: Oh, definitely. It’s hard for me to muster aggression when arguing for raises or negotiating for money. I do it, but it often takes trying more than once. As I’ve gone around and given talks and lectures about the material in the book – both since it’s been published and while I was writing it – in places as varied as Hong Kong, San Francisco, Chicago, Halifax, and London, I’ve found a lot of interest and anxiety among women concerning the necessity of turning on aggression in the workplace. I share that anxiety.
Womenetics: In your book, you refer to many different movies. Are you a movie buff? Is that what you do for fun?
Lavin: Yes, I love going to the movies. Also watching TV. True Blood is one of my favorite TV shows. I love Charlaine Harris’s Sookie books, too, that the series is based on. And I’m interested now in the new TV version of Nikita on the CW Network starring Maggie Q.
Womenetics: The recent elections highlighted several female candidates, but the new Congress will have fewer women. Why do you think that is?
Lavin: Great question. I think that there are a lot of complex cultural, political, and personal issues now concerning women’s roles, but when it comes down to it, one always has to return to the questions of (1) who has the power and (2) who has the money (and related services like health care). In general, during recession gains for women can be difficult, not impossible but difficult; recessions tend to be times of retrenchment, not power sharing. I think that’s what’s going on.
Jan Jaben-Eilon was a founding staff writer of the Atlanta Business Chronicle. Since then, she has been the international editor of Advertising Age magazine and has written for such publications as The New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Washington Journalism Review, and Consumer Reports. She is the author of soon-to-be-published (There is) Life After Cancer. Jan and her husband have homes in Atlanta and Jerusalem.
