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literarycrushes's review
3.0
Girlhood, Melissa Febos’s gorgeous collection of essays, reads part-memoir, part-history of the ways women are taught and socialized to inhabit their bodies under the patriarchy / male gaze. Febos weaves her own personal narrative into her extensive research on assault, consent, and trauma. The most memorable part of the memoir for me was when she wrote about her experience growing up in Cape Cod and of the betrayal of feeling othered by her own body. By the age of eleven she had fully developed and everyone from her classmates to fully grown men took this an invitation to talk about and touch her without her consent. She writes from a place of love and empathy about her younger self that I loved to read.
I read this on the beach, which was not necessarily the greatest setting for these essays, and at times I found myself glazing over and losing my place. The backdrop of screaming children, and seals playing (and trying not to think about what else might be chasing the seals) might not necessarily have been the greatest backdrop for some of her heavier subjects. As enlightening as it was difficult at times, it was a beautiful exposition of the challenges of inhabiting the body of a woman in our world and the transition from youth (girlhood) into adulthood.
I read this on the beach, which was not necessarily the greatest setting for these essays, and at times I found myself glazing over and losing my place. The backdrop of screaming children, and seals playing (and trying not to think about what else might be chasing the seals) might not necessarily have been the greatest backdrop for some of her heavier subjects. As enlightening as it was difficult at times, it was a beautiful exposition of the challenges of inhabiting the body of a woman in our world and the transition from youth (girlhood) into adulthood.
_darbi_'s review
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
girlhood is both deeply personal and universally resonant.
febos pulls from a wide variety of memories, places, and professions to deliver nuanced reflections on adolescence and coming into one’s own body. girlhood is replete with media analysis, philosophical excerpts, greek allusions, light psychotherapy, and personal narrative.
snippets of girlhood:
febos pulls from a wide variety of memories, places, and professions to deliver nuanced reflections on adolescence and coming into one’s own body. girlhood is replete with media analysis, philosophical excerpts, greek allusions, light psychotherapy, and personal narrative.
snippets of girlhood:
- etymological examinations (should we reclaim the term slut?)
- our first intimate relationships (surprise! it’s with our mothers)
- examinations on voyeurism (consensual and not) and its presence in “romantic” plot lines in media
- what true consent (physically and mentally) means and looks like (it’s enthusiastic and allowed to flex often!)
- how judgement experienced while young shapes you in variable ways, re. large hands and lesbianism, respectively
my favorite essays include: wild things, intrusions, and thesmorphia.
already planning on returning to ‘thesmorphia.’ in fact, i spent 30 minutes reading it aloud to my mom on the phone!
bfcruz's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
4.0
Wow, I was not prepared for how deeply this book made me feel.