Shorn Women: Gender and Punishment in Liberation France

The author is a modern feminist. She (I'm presuming it is a she) loves to complain about how horrible this punishment was. The shaving of women's heads was a punishment for collaboration with the enemy - usually horizontal comfort. The author fails to consider the fact that the penalty for collaboration with the enemy was often death. Compared to the death penalty, shaving a woman's head, which was only a temporary thing, seems extremely trivial. It is also interesting to see no explanation of why shaving a woman's head was considered so shameful - in the author's opinion - or where the idea came from. Maybe it came from 1 Corinthians 11. There are certainly some interesting facts, but it is way too drawn out and too slanted. The shaving of the head seems to me to be a rather lenient punishment for the crime.

I disagree with the other review. The author does explain some possible reasons why their heads were shorn. the other reviewer makes an excellent point about the severity of this punishment as much less than death. However F. Virgil states that the women would sometimes be tried in the traditional courts after the sheering. so the summery justice and the traditional justice system treated some women. Seems a little bit too much to me. But this is a great book that really explains how often this is thought to have happened based on evidence available. I recommend it and would like to see it in a college reading list.

Excellent information if you keep alert. Not a page-turner and quite randomly ordered information (I'm sure Fabrice and his editors had their reasons.) Also I found the information- which was rarely personal anecdotes- was presented (interpreted) quite subjectively and the subjectivity was very male and unsympathetic to the trauma these women suffered. He takes an: 'it'll grow back' attitude and deems shaving and tarring as signs of cultural cleansing and fails to take into account the personal. This was my experience of the book anyway. I'd be fascinated to know what other people think.

I was quite disappointed in this book as I was expecting personal experiences and recollections from victims, perpetrators and witnesses. Continuous lists of towns and numbers of people involved did get a little tedious. The parts where individuals recounted the events were, for me, the most interesting parts. However it would be usful for reference for academic work, essays etc.