Race, Gender, and Genre
59
states, ‘“Darling, I just followed your scent, like any bitch on a trail’” (Operation
118).
The texts may both covertly and overtly undermine women’s physical
presences, they do celebrate women’s customary knowledges. Penny is able to
foil the plans of the villains she faces by having gendered information and
abilities. For instance, she knows she is being followed because she repeatedly
spots a set of unique headlights: “one lamp a fraction of a shade yellower than
the other. Only someone with the Baroness’ superb color sense could have
picked them out at all” {Hard-core 156). She also has an advantage over the
Nazi ringleader who tells her that diamonds are a part of his plan for global
domination: “she knew more about diamonds than he did; she’d bought enough
of them” {Diamonds 112). In part due to her feminine pursuits of fashion and
jewelry, she is able to save the day and bring her nemeses to justice.
Although Coin is always effective in her duties, the Baroness often is
underestimated due to her gender. Mafiosos in The Ecstasy Connection have a
hard time accepting her physical prowess:
A woman was by definition an inferior being, in their society.
To see one manhandling their Don was impossibility. Their
minds were slow to comprehend it. (72)
Their dialogue betrays their sexism: “‘She’s just a broad’” (74), “‘She can’t
do no damage’” (74), “‘A broadly never hit you when she’s aiming. It’s when
they don’t mean it that you hafta watch out’” (75). After killing them all, the
Baroness again finds herself underestimated when drugged and kidnapped.
“They’d underestimated her magnificent physical condition, her reserves of
strength. The drug had worn off before it was supposed to” (166). The first book
sets up a running theme throughout the novels; the always male villain
undervalues her and pays the ultimate price for it. In Death is a Ruby Light,
Professor Thing believes that he is “hardly in danger of one small unarmed
female person” (168). In his estimation, being female is just as much of a
weakness as being alone and weaponless. He does, however, grant her one
respect. He tells her, “‘You’re more intelligent than I thought’” (169). She
outsmarts and kills him. In Hard-core Murder, a hand-to-hand fight with a
heavily muscled man causes him to say, “‘You ain’t got a chance... I’m stronger
than you’” (216). She overpowers and kills him. The Emir of Sonic Slave states
that “‘a man’s word is worth the word of two women’” (44). She kills him. Even
in death one of her foes thinks “it couldn’t be happening, to be killed by a
woman” {Sonic 118). But the Baroness doesn’t always kill sexism through
sexists. Before an auto race in Monte Carlo, a potential lover claims that he will
beat her time because he’s “got balls.” She retorts, “‘And Eve got ovaries,
darling. We women get just as much mileage out of them, you know. Where the
ho &