Critical Condition: Women on the Edge of Violence

by Amy Scholder (Editor)

While Aileen Wournos, the alleged “female serial killer” who insists she killed in self-defense, sits on death row, Hollywood filmmakers appropriate her story. Meanwhile, in our perverse justice system the sexual assaults and murders of forty-five women in San Diego are discounted by police and given file code name NHI, No Humans Involved, because the victims are perceived as sex workers, informants, homeless or working class women. The women in Critical Condition challenge abuse and invisibility with powerful literary and visual art. They put a spin on issues of women and violence by focusing on women won fight back, sometimes killing their abusers; women who control their own sexualities and challenge conventional ideas of sex; women who assert images of themselves in a cultural landscape where none appear; women who reframe personal histories that were meant to shame them into oblivion. Critical Condition includes Carla Kirkwood’s autobiographical performance monologue about a girl, sexually abused by the men in her family, who becomes a feminist activist in the ‘70’s, and an artist in the ‘90’s. In impassioned poetry, Wanda Coleman takes a look at the embattled lives of African-Americans, particularly in Los Angeles. Sapphire’s searing poems about race and self-realization exposé the fallacy of the nuclear family and the vicious cycle of domestic violence. The Theory Girls’ performance script, “If You Were like the Heroine in a Country and Western song,” is both detailed expose and black comedy framing the relationship between Aileen Wuornos and Arlene Pralle (the born-again Christian who became enamored of Wuornos after her conviction) within the context to Hollywood’s fascination for women with guns. Here, too, are panel discussions, taken from a conference at The Lab and San Francisco Camerawork, that focus on self-revelation and art, women who kill, and the question of race and gender in the media. There are over twenty-five pages of visual art, including the Women’s Work billboard campaign promoting public awareness of domestic violence, wit work by Barbara Kruger and Carrie Mae Weems. Critical Condition shows women on the edge of violence, defending themselves, asserting public images that resist conventional ideas of powerlessness and victimization, and combating the dominant paradigm with irreverence and fierce commitment.

Genres: Gender, Sociology

220 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Amy Scholder was the editorial director of the Feminist Press for six years. She has also served as editor-in-chief of Seven Stories Press, US publisher of Verso, founding co-editor of HIGH RISK Books/Serpent’s Tail, and editor at City Lights Books. Over the years, she has published the work of Sapphire, Karen Finley, June Jordan, Kate Bornstein, Kathy Acker, David Wojnarowicz, Joni Mitchell, Jill Johnson, Kate Millett, Elfriede Jelinek, Muriel Rukeyser, Laurie Weeks, Justin Vivian Bond, Virginie Despentes, Ana Castillo, and many other award-winning authors. She lives in New York and Los Angeles.

Reviews

[stella zine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book!!!!! I can highly recommend this book! big kudos for the insightful pieces about Aileen Wornos!! i got that book about twenty years ago and it was hughly influential to me. Lots of cutting edge brilliant artists using their art to raise awareness and create solutions to the most challenging problems at the time with in the violence against wimin issues. This book is still ultra relevant. Lots Powerful writing and early work by Safire!
Art can communicate, create culture and help to solve seemly inpenatrateable social issues such as violence against wimin, violence against sex workers, violence against forgotten and poor wimin such as with Aileen and the victims of the green river killer. This book show artists grappling with these human rights issues brilliantly!
As a side note and showing how influential the book was for me, being inspired by the artists in this book, I put together a benifit show for Aileen Wornos in 1995-ish in Atlanta ('Pagan Holiday' my '90's riot grrrl band & 'Smoke' fabulous band supportive of Aileen, also played at it) I did a spoken word about her situation, and I wrote to her being that i was also a sexworker at the time and from the american south, to encourage her to talk with her defense team/lawyers. but she had 'found jesus' and she had entered a guilty plea and stopped talking to her defense team. so sad!
The book Critical Condition also had lots of photos and talked about the NHI project where artists/activists used billboards to raise awareness of a the green river serial killer that had killed 60+ wimin (all sex workers) and the police had made a file called "NHI" - no humans involved. thats the file name the cops used to put the paper work from the wimin (sex workers) who had been killed. the killer hadn't been caught then. I most definately give this book five stars! It's a ground breaking book showing fabulous use of art/activism for sexworker rights/wimin rights which are of course human right!! x

i may write some more about this book later... xo

[Johan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! This book is an amazing collection of contributions to a conference on feminism, activism and art in 1992 in the US. As the title says, the topic is women on the edge of violence. Many of the contributing artists focused on the case of Aileen Wournos, the so called “first female serial killer” in the US. The case is interesting since it got massive media attention at the time and shows how different men and women is portrayed and handled in the media and to some extent in the legal courts. The book also discusses some heavy stuff like father-daughter incest and men’s violence against women, this being heartbreakingly captured in poetry. The poetry of Wanda Coleman is exceptional here with a sort of uzi style fast firing rap inspired technique. The horrible term NHI, no humans involved is also discussed. This was new to me and it’s pretty chocking that the police force in San Diego at the time could discount sexual assaults and murder of marginalised women like prostitutes or homeless women by referring to the cases in that way. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in these issues.

[Rory · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a compilation of transcripts from a seminar on women and violence. It is truly adept at addressing personal experiences and social trends, and looks at women not only as victims, but also in their roles as aggressors. This is a small, succinct, and ultimately powerful book.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

excellent published copy of an excellent conference including influential writers such as Sapphire and Dorothy Allison. I'm alright with that :)

[Lisa]

Critical Condition: Women on the Edge of Violence by Amy Scholder (2001)

[Mills College Library]

810.9352 C9343 1993