PTSD and female sexuality in the aftermath of childhood and adolescent sexual abuse in Una’s Becoming Unbecoming

Bibliographic Data

ID22003362
AuthorsOlga Michael (0000-0003-0523-9929, University of Central Lancashire Cyprus, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume11
Issue4
Pages394-411
Publication date2020-07-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Graphic Novels & Comics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2150-4857 • E-ISSN: 2150-4865
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/21504857.2020.1773886
OpenAlexW3009437299
LanguageEN
References cited22

In this essay, I examine the representation of female sexuality in the aftermath of childhood and adolescent sexual abuse and in the course of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in Una’s Becoming Unbecoming. Drawing from work on mental illness, social justice, and graphic medicine, I investigate the narrativisation of the autobiographical subject’s suffering through the comics medium. My aim is to show how Becoming Unbecoming counters the silences and stereotypes existing around the sexuality of abused and mentally ill women and girls. In her attempt to represent the symptoms of PTSD – itself the outcome of sexual violence – and to remove stigma from female rape survivors, Una makes use of braiding and metaphors in her narrative. These allow for a complex demonstration of PTSD symptoms and of the autobiographical subject’s desire for (sexual) intimacy as she grows up. In this way, Becoming Unbecoming breaks into the silence and challenges the stereotypes that render the sexuality of (mentally ill) women and girls invisible at best and perverse at worst

Aesthetics · Art · Criminology · Developmental psychology · Human sexuality · Literature · Narrative · Poison control · Psychoanalysis · Sexual abuse · Sexual violence · Silence · Sociology · Suicide prevention · Comics and Graphic Narratives · Digital Storytelling and Education · Gender Studies · Medicine · Narrative Theory and Analysis · Psychology

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