ABSTRACT

Battered women who kill their abusers occupy an especially anomalous position within Western heteropatriachal cultures. In the first instance, their killings are particularly traumatic for the dominant discourses of heteropatriarchy because they challenge one of its major institutions, exposing the family as a site of violence and fear rather than perpetuating a myth of safety and care. Second, the women are themselves deeply perplexing, viewed as both victims and perpetrators, as culpable yet blameless. In short, they inhabit a paradox, where extreme victimization leads finally to lethally effective retaliation.