Kayla Williams, the author of this book, is drawn to power. Because she’s a soldier, she loves the power that she has and the superiority she has over others as well. She gets this excitement and drive when she does something that someone else can’t do because to her, it shows that she is more “powerful” than they are.
Kayla has to guard this specific area in Iraq, and has to hold a man hostage, because he was threatening the village. It was just her and the drunken hostage and, “He whined for almost an hour. At some point I felt like whacking his damned skull-anything to make him shut up. I found myself yelling. I found myself calling this jerk every insulting name I knew.”(204)
After thinking about what she had said to the man, she felt really bad about it, “Yet yelling at this guy did also feel perversely good. Because it was something I was allowed to do…I don’t like to admit it, but I enjoyed having the power over this guy.” (205)
The part that interested me most about this part of the book was when she said, “For months afterward, I think about this episode, minor though it really was. I wonder if my own creepy sense of pleasure at my power over this man had anything to do with being a woman in this situation.”(205)
My answer to this question is yes, I think it did have to do with being a woman. I know that sometimes, boys do get that same feeling when they yell at a boy, and end up having more power, because I believe that for boys, it sort of shows whose more manly, or “macho”. But, in this case, I think that if a woman yells at a man, and has more power over him, then it does give you that pleasure that you have more power over him. Mainly because most of the time, men are the ones who are more forceful and scream at ladies [unfortunately] and they are the ones to make sure that the lady knows that they are the more powerful ones.
This feeling that Kayla Williams experienced goes along with proving yourself to a boy that you are no push over, that you are Justas strong and powerful as they are, so I think that it gains you that respect. It confirms that you do not fall into that category that women are placed in as being weak, ditsy, and not intelligent. I’m sure that there has been a time where a girl has won something or beaten a boy at something and had that exact same feeling of, “Yes, I proved you WRONG.”
(P.S. - what do you think Kim ?)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I agree with what you're saying. Sometimes it feels good to be able to have the control in a relationship or as a woman in general, because as we all know men are the ones with most of the contorl. They believe that they aren't truely a man if they don't have the control. When feel respected and loved when our opioins count and when we get to speak our mind and when the guy takes consideration of our thoughts, it shows us they care. A woman with control shows that she isn't afraid to speak for herself and because we are sick of just following "his" words instead of our own. Having the power in something makes human feel powerful, as if they have control over the world, but it's only over the people that is willing to follow. Like our parents have control over us until we learn to disobey, but they feel powerful because they have the right to tell us what to do. having power makes a person feel strong, but having too much power will cause problems. As for Kayla, her liking the power over that man, seems like she's just trying to take revenage, becuase of how men treat women. I means it's good for women to have power at times, but don't take all of the power away from their husband or boyfriend, because then the guy is going to feel helpless and a woman is in control of him. To me men and women should split the power in half. That's the only way things will work out peacefully. Let the man be a man, but let him know you still have a saying in everything if you don't agree with his thoughts.
Post a Comment