[.ca] Women Out of Control: How the Girls Next Door Became ... (ISBN 0786719117)

Girls Gone Criminal:
Women Out Of Control is not a book for the faint stomached, yet should appeal to the morbidly fascinated. We all remember hearing the stories of Lorena Bobbitt, Pamela Smart, Mary Letourneau, Karla Faye Tucker and Canadian Karla Homolka, but Stunell's book presents many details we forgot or never knew about these women. Fortunately, she adds many comic jabs to lighten the gravitas. Of the castrating Lorena Bobbitt, she follows Bobbitt's quote - "I can't imagine dating another man" - with "Except for those contemplating a sex change, few men can ever imagine dating her either." Stunell's thesis is that woman's violence against men is not always the result of being abused or oppressed by those men, but that some violent women are just bad to begin with and they find rape, torture, castration and murder to be a sexual or emotional turn-on. That may be the case with these subjects - with the exception of Letourneau - but it is certainly not typical of the hundreds of imprisoned women across North America who have justifiably lashed out at their men after suffering years of abuse. Indeed, as a non-violent teacher whose crime was to seduce and fall in love with her teen student, Letourneau's story seems the most out of place among this group. At the other extreme, the Homolka story is so graphic it should not be considered for bedtime reading, lest it inspire nightmares. I would recommend this book as a cautionary device to any man who feels put upon by his woman.