Witnessing Girlhood by Leigh Gilmore;Elizabeth Marshall;

Author:Leigh Gilmore;Elizabeth Marshall; [Marshall, Leigh Gilmore and Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lightning Source Inc. (Tier 2)
Published: 2019-11-14T16:00:00+00:00

Figure 2. Magda encounters small men in the forest. Illustrations from A Child’s Life and Other Stories by Phoebe Gloeckner, published by North Atlantic Books, copyright © 1998, 2000 by Phoebe Gloeckner. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.

Temporality

The panels allow for at least two perspectives: the young girl’s and her future, married, adult self. The girl is narrator, actor, and observer. When Gloeckner places two selves in the picture, she shifts temporality to challenge girlhood vulnerability. She uses the strategy of grafting girlhood onto womanhood visually by offering a girl who “knows” not only about sexuality, but also about the oppressive and patriarchal institution of marriage and family. By telescoping two temporalities, she asks the reader to see a young girl who understands that risk lies hidden in plain sight, in the institutions of patriarchy and white male privilege.

Extending this idea, the first man she encounters will get her pregnant when she is seventeen years old. He promises, “I’m going to lie to you a lot!”29 In the next series of panels, she meets her second husband, who offers her an “open marriage,” tells her how to dress, and sends her to college. He also “disciplines” her children, and in this image the future husband hits a young girl in the head with a broom, knocking her off a tree branch on which Magda’s adult self and two children also sit (Figure 3). In the panel, the child Magda is oversized and her large arm reaches into the scene to interrupt abuse and shout, “Hey! Don’t Touch Those Babies!!” Gloeckner draws young Magda as a witness who moves to protect the abused girl from further harm.

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