The power of #MeToo movement cannot be fully comprehended as with the Black Lives Matter movement, as both represents a long history of being maligned, as old as time. People of color have struggled to deal with the constant discrimination, as famed psychologist, Kevin Nadal, along with some other therapists have coined it as “microaggressions”. This dismissal of the psychological trauma as well as s the constant pressure of society, has made people of color feel invisible, therefore it must be said, “Black Lives Matter”.

The # MeToo movement, has also suffered many indignations, as women, time after time, has to suffer sexual harassment and sexual assault, quiet evils where people rather divert their eyes, than confront the problem. This is where those who hold privilege usually will normally say, “Don’t allow yourself to be offended” or “why did she not come out sooner” or even the tired adage of “pull yourself by your bootstraps”, which are all truculent and lacks the empathy needed to understand the situations they are talking about.  In Una’s Becoming Unbecoming Una we follow a young lady as she faces open gender violence and misery over a choice to have birth control pills.

We meet Una, as she introduces the reader how she grew up and how her high school years started normally, as her interests in boys starts to blossom.  At the same time, a serial killer targeting prostitutes have gripped Yorkshire, the town she grows up in and has everyone scared to leave their homes. Soon Una becomes even more interested in the “birds and the bees”, as she experiments with her curiosity like how does kissing feel, which leads to unwanted attention and slut shaming as his came to be known, which also leads to her missing school and needing therapy. By book’s end, the culmination of the abuse she undertakes, permanently scars her and her family but through therapy and her family’s bond, she comes out stronger.

Overall, a strong indictment that not only confronts slut shaming, but also misogyny, and society’s disregard to women. The stories by Una is both heartfelt, distressing and resonating. The art by Una drives home the powerful messages seen throughout the book. Altogether, a book which pushes the reader to no longer accept these pugnacious attitudes and treat everyone as human.

Story: Una Art: Una
Story: 10 Art: 8.0 Overall: 9.3 Recommendation: Buy