I am re-watching “The Fall” on Netflix because it is such a powerful show in so many different ways. Stella Gibson is an almost perfect embodiment of strong career woman. And the shows writers have shown remarkable power in stressing several feminist themes throughout the show’s run.

At one point, Stella Gibson tells her paramour the following words whilst they are presumedly post-coitus:

A woman, I forget who, once asked a male friend why men felt threatened by women. He replied that they were afraid that women might laugh at them. When she asked a group of women why women felt threatened by men they saud, “We’re afriad they might kill us.”

I found it odd that this television show, so precise in a lot of other ways, thought to present this quote as is: “A woman, I forget who.” It seemed unlikely that Stella Gibson would be unable to recall the exact source of such a profound quote. A quote that Stella herself lives to fight against with every molecule that she is. So I looked it up.

The quote seems to be attribute to Margaret Atwood more often than not. However, this page at wikiquote seems to suggest that a definitive source has been elusive.

Unattributable as it seems to be, it is probably the most comprehensive explanation of violent misogyny that I’ve ever seen.

This post first published on Medium on December 15, 2015