Summary of Melissa Febos's Girlhood

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

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#1 Your father holds you up to the sky, telling you to look at the stars. He tells you, Remember this. You are nothing but a small animal in the pink dress from your abuela, dirty sneakers, and bloodied knees.

#2 When you are sixteen, you shave your head, disappointed that no curb or wall has altered its perfect sphere. You quit baseball and move out of your father’s house. Instead of ten holes, your body now has twenty-three. You stop returning your father’s phone calls.

#3 You choose the needle and the hand that holds it. You carve the things you want to remember into your shoulder, your hip, the crook of your arm. You carve yourself into paper. These are not secrets, but they keep.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Mar 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669365464

IRB Media

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Insights on Melissa Febos's Girlhood

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Your father holds you up to the sky, telling you to look at the stars. He tells you, Remember this. You are nothing but a small animal in the pink dress from your abuela, dirty sneakers, and bloodied knees.

#2

When you are sixteen, you shave your head, disappointed that no curb or wall has altered its perfect sphere. You quit baseball and move out of your father’s house. Instead of ten holes, your body now has twenty-three. You stop returning your father’s phone calls.

#3

You choose the needle and the hand that holds it. You carve the things you want to remember into your shoulder, your hip, the crook of your arm. You carve yourself into paper. These are not secrets, but they keep.

Insights from Chapter 2

#1

I was a dominatrix, and I served humiliation to order. I did not derive any sexual pleasure from spitting, but I did believe that it was the thrill of transgression. I wanted to be brave and curious, and in control.

#2

I had known Alex for years, but the first clear memory I have of him is from when I was eleven, and he was the one who spit on me for the first time. I had enrolled in the public middle school with all the other fifth- and sixth-graders in our town.

#3

I was ten years old when I