Girlhood

Girlhood’s prologue is in the form of a list. What else is different about it? How does this unconventional prologue set up our expectations for what the collection will be?

Describe what was happening between Alex and Febos in “Kettle Holes.” How did it make you feel? Is this experience familiar to you?

Because Febos’s body developed before her peers’, she became a target of male advances. Why was this both powerful and dangerous?

In Febos’s interview with women who went through the same experience, what did she learn? How does this frame her own experience?

Why did the young Febos have such a tortured relationship with her body as she hit puberty? Why did girls her age treat Febos differently when they ostensibly wanted what Febos had?

What, according to Febos, are “events”? Why does she call them thus?

In “Wild America,” Febos writes about her relationship with her hands and how it changed. What made her realize the power and beauty of her hands?

In “Intrusions,” Febos confronts her own Peeping Tom. How did the man react? What can we conclude about this reaction?

The same essay also recounts various pieces of pop culture that figure a woman falling in love with her stalker. Why is this trope harmful?

What kind of relationship can we surmise Febos has with her mother, after reading “Thesmophoria”? What does this piece suggest about the relationship between girlhood and motherhood?

How did Febos finally tell her mother about her life? Why didn’t she feel like she could share things with her mother?

What is the main issue that Febos tackles in “Thank You for Taking Care of Yourself”? What are some of the ways that she approaches the issue?

What, in Febos scholarship and her essay, is lacking in the current conversation about consent?

The final essay in Girlhood deals with two separate trips to France. Aside from geographic location, what else do these trips have in common? How do these two events strengthen the argument of the essay?

Febos’s essay collection spans her childhood up to her thirties, yet it is titled Girlhood. Why is this so?