Betrayed by the Angel

Betrayed by the Angel

Q: What happens when violence knocks and politeness Answers?

The essay selected for this paper, illustrates the ways gender performances associated with normative femininity and masculinity play into women and men as victims and perpetrators of violence. Davis shares her story of childhood passivity and desire to be polite and well-liked and to not make demands on anyone, and relates this to the poignant story of her rape at the age of 25 years. She discusses author Virginia Woolf's “Angel in the House” (the self-sacrificing, modest, passive, and selfless woman) in this context, and of her ...