What do you think?
Rate this book
Kill the Body, the Head Will Fall: A Closer Look at Women, Violence, and Aggression
Drawing on research and her own experience in the boxing ring, the author shows how aggression equals success in every arena of life, debunks the idea that women are less aggressive, and shows women how to unleash their rage. Tour.
- GenresNonfictionFeminism
182 pages, Hardcover
First published November 29, 2009
2 people are currently reading
321 people want to read
About the author
Rene Denfeld
22 books2,450 followersRene Denfeld is the bestselling author of THE CHILD FINDER, THE ENCHANTED, THE BUTTERFLY GIRL, SLEEPING GIANTS, and the forthcoming THE TALKING BONE (Harper July 2026).
"Rene Denfeld is one of the handful of living writers I most admire, and Sleeping Giants may be her masterpiece. Haunting, frightening and moving in equal measure, her new novel is a sublime page turner, evoking beauty and terror in the same moment. I read it in an afternoon, enthralled, and am still under its spell."
— Elizabeth Hand, author of A Haunting on the Hill and Generation Loss.
Rene's poetic fiction has won numerous awards including the French Prix, an ALA Medal for Excellence and an IMPAC listing. Rene works as a licensed investigator, including exonerating innocents from prison and helping rape trafficking victims. Rene is the happy mother to several children adopted from foster care. In 2017 she was awarded the Break The Silence Award for her advocacy work, and the New York Times named her hero of the year.
To book a 1:1 convo with Rene reach out on https://www.skolay.com/writers/rene-d...
"Rene Denfeld is one of the handful of living writers I most admire, and Sleeping Giants may be her masterpiece. Haunting, frightening and moving in equal measure, her new novel is a sublime page turner, evoking beauty and terror in the same moment. I read it in an afternoon, enthralled, and am still under its spell."
— Elizabeth Hand, author of A Haunting on the Hill and Generation Loss.
Rene's poetic fiction has won numerous awards including the French Prix, an ALA Medal for Excellence and an IMPAC listing. Rene works as a licensed investigator, including exonerating innocents from prison and helping rape trafficking victims. Rene is the happy mother to several children adopted from foster care. In 2017 she was awarded the Break The Silence Award for her advocacy work, and the New York Times named her hero of the year.
To book a 1:1 convo with Rene reach out on https://www.skolay.com/writers/rene-d...
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
August 18, 2018
Really interesting. I did learn a lot about boxing, but the author's own journey into learning to fight is just the starting point for exploring female aggression. Parts of the chapter on women's crimes is hard to read, but the point is that idealizing women and their goodness and gentleness does no one any favors. It makes it harder for women to know what to do with their anger and frustration, which they certainly will feel, and so need a productive means of dealing with it. Sports can not only provide a means of learning how to control aggression, but also a means of learning to enjoy physicality and to develop and revel in their own strength.
Almost twenty years old, the book would probably read differently if written today, but its message is still valuable now. Without any plans to start boxing, I found it helpful.
Almost twenty years old, the book would probably read differently if written today, but its message is still valuable now. Without any plans to start boxing, I found it helpful.
July 9, 2011
In the wake of the Casey Anthony verdict I've been rereading and recommending this important, provocative look at women, aggression and violence. Originally released in 1996 it remains tremendously relevant, perhaps even more so.
From Booklist:
Denfeld, an amateur boxer who was the first woman to win the Tacoma Golden Gloves tournament in 1995, is uniquely qualified to write a book on women and aggression. She had taken up boxing at age 26 as a challenging and healthy hobby but soon found that it made her question many of her own and society's assumptions about violence and aggression as intrinsically male traits. Women are supposed to be naturally nonviolent and passive. However, Denfeld sees aggression as a "human condition, not confined to one sex." Citing research on women and crime, child abuse, spousal abuse, and women in the military, she supplements her findings with stories of her boxing experiences--training in an all-male gym, sparring with teenage and preteen partners, and her first fight with a woman boxer who could throw punches better than most men. This calmly reasoned yet engrossing book may alter your opinions not only about boxing as a sport but also about the nature and extent of differences between the sexes. George Eberhart
From Booklist:
Denfeld, an amateur boxer who was the first woman to win the Tacoma Golden Gloves tournament in 1995, is uniquely qualified to write a book on women and aggression. She had taken up boxing at age 26 as a challenging and healthy hobby but soon found that it made her question many of her own and society's assumptions about violence and aggression as intrinsically male traits. Women are supposed to be naturally nonviolent and passive. However, Denfeld sees aggression as a "human condition, not confined to one sex." Citing research on women and crime, child abuse, spousal abuse, and women in the military, she supplements her findings with stories of her boxing experiences--training in an all-male gym, sparring with teenage and preteen partners, and her first fight with a woman boxer who could throw punches better than most men. This calmly reasoned yet engrossing book may alter your opinions not only about boxing as a sport but also about the nature and extent of differences between the sexes. George Eberhart
January 17, 2020
I came to this book with great reticence. I after all am one of those women who was told that to stifle my anger was what was expected of me as a woman. I also had a mother who was extremely violent in private and sweet as sugar in public. This book brought up so many issues that I need to process for a while. Thoughtful topic, thoughtful points and I am glad that I read it in spite of hating boxing and all things violent. While this is in someways dated, the ideas presented are timeless. Worth a read.
July 9, 2009
I find the topic of female aggression very interesting, especially when related to societal convention - How much is women's strength affected by constant reminders of weakness?
At any rate, it's a good book, tho a bit dated, full of the author's boxing experiences and insight. When her friends responded that boxing might let off steam, Denfeld said no, 'it's not a cathartic drain of anger, but an awareness of one's ability to aggress.' She notes that women are discouraged from the awareness and forthright expression of anger. We are made of sugar and spice after all.
Joking aside, her point stands - We are told: Male anger contains a threat. Female anger, if it contains anything, is deemed bitchiness or laughed off as a joke.
Told our entire lives that our anger is minor and our aggression inconsequential, a woman may be blindsided by her ability to hurt another.
Just a thought.
At any rate, it's a good book, tho a bit dated, full of the author's boxing experiences and insight. When her friends responded that boxing might let off steam, Denfeld said no, 'it's not a cathartic drain of anger, but an awareness of one's ability to aggress.' She notes that women are discouraged from the awareness and forthright expression of anger. We are made of sugar and spice after all.
Joking aside, her point stands - We are told: Male anger contains a threat. Female anger, if it contains anything, is deemed bitchiness or laughed off as a joke.
Told our entire lives that our anger is minor and our aggression inconsequential, a woman may be blindsided by her ability to hurt another.
Just a thought.
August 13, 2023
While I enjoyed some of the points made I think the feminism presented in this book hasn’t aged super well. The idea of women being depicted as soft only applies to white women really, which fortunately is touched on. I also disagree on a basic level that women will stop fearing rape if they are able to fight back attackers, and that rape is not an imminent threat. If we look at (albeit modern) rape statistics this is not true. Also: is one of the final goals of womanhood going into the police or military? Groups which suppress non-white women?
With all this said the book makes some interesting points about the types of violence women are allowed to express and the negative reactions of when they step outside these bounds. I also do wish this book either had more feminist theory or was more of a boxing memoir as I struggled with the jumping between and feel it left both sides wanting.
With all this said the book makes some interesting points about the types of violence women are allowed to express and the negative reactions of when they step outside these bounds. I also do wish this book either had more feminist theory or was more of a boxing memoir as I struggled with the jumping between and feel it left both sides wanting.
January 31, 2016
Oddly fascinating book on the history of female amateur boxing -- how hard it was for women to break in, how it changed women's images of themselves when they started proudly displaying the battle scars they'd earned in the ring, and what the whole phenomenon teaches us about the nature of men and women. This one is well worth your time.
June 15, 2010
This was one of my favorite books in high school. I want to see if it withstands the test of time.
It did.
It did.
March 16, 2025
Ms. Denfeld is a fabulous novelist. In fact, I have compared a few of her novels and writing style to such greats as Conrad, Capote, and Toni Morrison. She is a novelist to be reckoned with.
"Kill the Body, The Head will Fall," the title of an autobiography by Ms. Denfeld is quite different from her novels (The title taken from a phrase made popular by the great Muhammad Ali). Ms. Denfeld's recounts her time when she walked into an all male gym with the intention of learning how to box. Under the tutelage of an old time trainer, Jess Sandoval, she not only learns the art of boxing, sparring with male fighters, and finally fighting in amateur fights against other women boxers but she recognizes the strength and aggression, often misinterpreted by the general public, that women quite often exhibit which are just as violent and devastating as men.
Ms. Denfeld's autobiography on women and aggression does not achieve the high literary status of her novels ( few autobiographies do)but like in all her novels this book rings with the honesty and truth that all great writers strive to achieve.
"Kill the Body, The Head will Fall," the title of an autobiography by Ms. Denfeld is quite different from her novels (The title taken from a phrase made popular by the great Muhammad Ali). Ms. Denfeld's recounts her time when she walked into an all male gym with the intention of learning how to box. Under the tutelage of an old time trainer, Jess Sandoval, she not only learns the art of boxing, sparring with male fighters, and finally fighting in amateur fights against other women boxers but she recognizes the strength and aggression, often misinterpreted by the general public, that women quite often exhibit which are just as violent and devastating as men.
Ms. Denfeld's autobiography on women and aggression does not achieve the high literary status of her novels ( few autobiographies do)but like in all her novels this book rings with the honesty and truth that all great writers strive to achieve.
June 9, 2020
I read this for a research project; it was not the most useful due to the date of printing (1997) and the focus on American research. Neither of these are the fault of the author; my star rating is based mostly on how helpful this was to my work.
February 7, 2018
Interesting, controversial study of violence in women from a writer and amateur boxer. Not sure if I agree with all of Denfeld's conclusions, but she gave me much to ponder.
March 19, 2008
Brilliant book. Denfeld analyzes female agression through the lens of her own training as an amateur boxer. It's a really smart book, challenging the traditional ideas about agression as related to gender. It's also a really fast, accessible read.
August 19, 2011
Well written story of the first woman boxer to train in Portland when women were allowed to train as amateurs. A courageous insight into women's aggression.
April 12, 2014
Rene Denfeld was the first amateur female boxer in Portland and she has a lot of well-researched and well-articulated thoughts concerning aggression in women. A must-read.
November 5, 2017
3.5/5
Even though this was first published nearly 20 years ago, "Kill The Body, The Head Will Fall" remains completely relevant today. Rene Denfeld, best known for her novel "The Enchanted", is not only a writer, but an amateur boxer. In fact, she was one of the first women in this area of sport in the US. Through these experiences, she got preoccupied with the often overlooked issue of women and violence. Either seen as non-threatening or played off as a joke, women have a fair share of aggressive or violent tendencies. From child abuse, spousal murder, criminal history to simply being competitive in the workplace or in sports, Denfeld deconstructs the myth of the "peaceful, non-threatening female gender". My only complaint concerns the research Denfeld used. Since this was published nearly 20 years ago, some of the studies are outdated and therefore some topics should be revisited (this was especially true for the chapters about "Fear and Rape" and "Women in the Military").
Even though this was first published nearly 20 years ago, "Kill The Body, The Head Will Fall" remains completely relevant today. Rene Denfeld, best known for her novel "The Enchanted", is not only a writer, but an amateur boxer. In fact, she was one of the first women in this area of sport in the US. Through these experiences, she got preoccupied with the often overlooked issue of women and violence. Either seen as non-threatening or played off as a joke, women have a fair share of aggressive or violent tendencies. From child abuse, spousal murder, criminal history to simply being competitive in the workplace or in sports, Denfeld deconstructs the myth of the "peaceful, non-threatening female gender". My only complaint concerns the research Denfeld used. Since this was published nearly 20 years ago, some of the studies are outdated and therefore some topics should be revisited (this was especially true for the chapters about "Fear and Rape" and "Women in the Military").
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews