All the World’s a Stage: The Street Fighter and the Boxer

Abstract

In this chapter Taylor Porter studies women’s violence outside the home in two contiguous arenas. Street fighting begins the chapter, partly because it is likely to be one of the first encounters girls have with public violence. It also points up how violence is not only gendered but also how its value changes according to class and community. Women’s boxing formalizes this practice into a sport, but this most masculine of athletic arenas forces performers to employ strategies of impression management regarding their identities. For dramatic literature on street fighting, she examines Rob Urbanti’s Hazelwood Jr. High (2009), based on the murder of Shanda Sharer, and Marsha Norman’s Getting Out (1977). Prior abuse is evidently an impetus behind these girls’ violence, but particularly in Hazelwood Jr. High, the most common psychological and sociological explanations prove inadequate. Kia Corthron’s Breath, Boom (2000) shows the devastation wrought by structural violence in the Bronx. Urbanvessel’s Voice-Box (2010) creates an unexpected and culturally playful combination of boxing and opera while still offering an insightful critique on our cultural discomfort with this violent sport when practiced by women.