Becoming Unbecoming

by Una

Overview

This extraordinary graphic novel is a powerful denunciation of sexual violence against women. As seen through the eyes of a twelve-year-old girl named Una, it takes place in northern England in 1977, as the Yorkshire Ripper, a serial killer of prostitutes, is on the loose and creating panic among the townspeople. As the police struggle in their clumsy attempts to find the killer, and the headlines in the local paper become more urgent, a once self-confident Una teaches herself to "lower her gaze" in order to deflect attention from boys.

After she is "slut-shamed" at school for having birth control pills, Una herself is the subject of violent acts for which she comes to blame herself. But as the police finally catch up and identify the killer, Una grapples with the patterns of behavior that led her to believe she was to blame.

Becoming Unbecoming combines various styles, press clippings, photo-based illustrations, and splashes of color to convey Una's sense of confusion and rage, as well as sobering statistics on sexual violence against women. The book is a no-holds-barred indictment of sexual violence against women and the shame and blame of its victims that also celebrates the empowerment of those able to gain control over their selves and their bodies.

Una (a pseudonym) is an artist, academic, and comics creator. Becoming Unbecoming, which took seven years to create, is her first book. She lives in the United Kingdom.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781551526553
Publisher:	Arsenal Pulp Press, Limited
Publication date:	10/03/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	216
Sales rank:	617,303
File size:	56 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	15 Years

About the Author

Una: Una is an artist, academic and comics creator. Her self-published graphic narratives have explored disability, psychosis, political activism and violence against women and girls. Becoming Unbecoming is her first book.

Editorial Reviews

…Una's personal experience is less the center of this story than the springboard for an extended examination of what she calls "the four horsemen of gender violence—shame, isolation, disbelief, ridicule."

The New York Times Book Review - Douglas Wolk

★ 12/14/2015
This challenging debut graphic novel is dense with facts, figures, and exposition, but the issues it explores—sexual violence and the public response to it—are what make it truly difficult to read. U.K. artist Una juxtaposes her own formative years with the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper, who murdered over a dozen women in England in the late 1970s. And though the artist thankfully didn’t meet such a grizzly fate, her own early encounters with male sexuality left an enduring mark, which she explores through a rich collage of drawing styles. The book is largely expositional, as Una digs deep into her memories, the words and images seemingly pouring out of her pen as she unflinchingly explores a nation’s scramble to stop a serial killer and her emotional struggles with her own sexual abuse. It’s as well crafted as it is difficult—and an important document of the lingering effects of male violence against women. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

"The first line of dialogue is written on a cloud: 'I am Una.' That simple declaration begins a searing indictment of sexual violence … As a preteen, Una suffered not only sexual abuse but also blistering shame, which made her believe she was damaged. But Una survived, and her book is a roar on behalf of women all over the world." —Oprah.com ("Best Memoir of the Year")

"Una's personal experience is less the center of this story than the springboard for an extended examination of what she calls 'the four horsemen of gender violence — shame, isolation, disbelief, ridicule.'" —New York Times

"A graphic manifesto for female empowerment and a punch to the gut of predatory males ... A powerfully disturbing graphic narrative from an author with a lot to say and plenty of creative chops to say it provocatively." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"In Una’s simple, spare text and artwork, we get a story about learning how to take ownership over your memories, however painful they might be, and how to gain power by putting brutality into a larger social context and calmly calling your fellow travelers to arms." —Vulture.com

"A feminist call to arms ... A graphic memoir on sexual violence against women that everyone should read." —Bustle.com

"Among the most powerful books published on misogyny, sexual assault and survival in recent years ... Becoming Unbecoming reads with a visceral, gut-wrenching power that cannot be ignored." —Popmatters.com

From the Publisher

★ 2016-08-25
A graphic manifesto for female empowerment and a punch to the gut of predatory males.The young, British female artist who has taken the name Una (“meaning One, one life, one of many”) recounts her years of coming-of-age when the Yorkshire Ripper rampaged as a serial killer of prostitutes (and other women he considered of dubious moral value) and seemed almost to serve as some sort of moral barometer in a country that had its own problems concerning female sexuality. During a time of slut shaming and victim blaming, which have hardly disappeared, a young woman coming-of-age with punk-rock rebellion and her own emerging sexual desires could feel conflicted and alone, as those victimized (as she was, more than once) could often feel before the internet would take that victimization viral. The author was told that “there was a problem and it was located in me,” that the source of her anxiety and depression might be better treated through psychological therapy than through legal redress for crimes that she, as the victim, felt afraid to confess. “So I became an unreliable witness and a perfect victim,” she writes. With a sensory overload of text and visual variety, readers share the unsettling feelings as the narrative expands to cast Una as an Everygirl who was not the shamed exception but actually more the norm. Two pages on how “We Can’t COUNT on the justice system,” followed by a visual representation of “The Ocean of Sexual Crime That Goes Unreported,” show just how pervasive the threat toward women has been. And when the Yorkshire Ripper was finally apprehended, everyone was surprised by what “an ordinary married man” he turned out to be and what “a lovely man” he’d seemed to his neighbors. The book concludes with a wordless coda, projections of the lives that might have been had the murderer not killed these women and disrupted these families. A powerfully disturbing graphic narrative from an author with a lot to say and plenty of creative chops to say it provocatively.

Kirkus Reviews