Tam's issue isn't protection, it's power and control. She's not 'upper-middle class', she's not 'the most educated', she's not slimmer of the week, she's not a moral person. What she is is a woman who has rolled around in filth due to her own issues, and has found herself completely out of touch with reality. She thinks the lauding she's received for hunting is legitimately going to be a ticket out of any situation. I just see a person who never had much social currency or power/control and went to the extreme to get it. She could do what she wanted to nonces and enjoy herself (valid) but she thinks that applies to other social dynamics too and it simply doesn't. She's control mad. The people she can control the easiest are the children in her life.
Mommie dearest.