Why is it that despite country music’s overall conservatism and exaltation of rural, small-town culture, female country artists routinely write songs that would make a simple country farmer’s eyes bug out?

Why do the men sing about inoffensive, patriotic good times, while the women score hits with lyrics about murdering lovers?

For the LA Review of Books, Alice Bolin writes about this peculiar corner of music where women rage but “no one seems to notice how transgressive they are being.”