Becoming Unbecoming
By Una
216 pages;
Arsenal Pulp Press
No words appear on the opening page of this graphic memoir. Instead, we
see the silhouette of a woman climbing a hill that echoes the curve of the
earth, toward a single tree at the top. Slung over the woman's shoulder is the
outline of an object that could be an oversize duffle—suggestive of heavy
emotional baggage. But here's the thing: That oval could also be a thought
balloon waiting to be filled. On the following page, the first line of dialogue
is written on a cloud: "I am Una." That simple declaration begins a
searing indictment of sexual violence. Growing up in northern England in the '70s,
Una saw the police spend years bungling the investigation of a serial killer
who preyed mostly on prostitutes. Meanwhile, young Una learned to avert her
gaze. "Girls had to be sexy, but not too sexy. ... They had to be careful not to let their breasts and thighs alarm people.
... Slut was the worst thing a girl could be." As a preteen, she 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. Weaving her story together with headlines about the killer, crime
statistics, images of disembodied paper doll clothes and stunningly beautiful
drawings of nature, she fills our own thought balloons with more than words can
express.
— Dawn Raffel