In the memoir Mean by Myriam Gurba, Gurba takes the reader through her childhood and her adult life. Gurba takes on sexual violence, abuse, and life experiences; turning these dark and serious matters into comedy. She grew up as what she describes a queer Mexican woman and the experiences she went through growing up made her the person she is today. Gurba uses her dark sense of humor to tackle these very hard topics, such as the hardships of growing up female.
Throughout the memoir, Gurba Gurba ties everything towards the hardship of growing up as a woman. Gurba opens the book with the rape and murder of Sophia, showing how innocent and scared Sophia is. Gurba says, “[Sophia] clutches her purse. Her fingers worry its strap” (1). Girls and young woman walk the streets of the town they think is safe everyday until something terrifying like this happens. Girls worry that something like this will happen to them and Gurba shows how traumatic these situations are. Later on in the memoir, Gurba talks about her sister Ofelia’s eating disorder. She doesn’t really allude to this but society gives girls this stereotype of how they are supposed to look, how skinny you are supposed to be. This stereotype traps young girls like Ofelia and makes them think they have to adapt to these societal norms. Gurba goes to her mom saying “Ofelia has anorexia” (50). Her mom doesn’t believe her and says that Ofelia just needs to eat more. Gurba then brings this attention to her dad who says the same thing. Her parents didn’t notice how bad this was until it was almost too late. Many girls at a young age go through something traumatic and society shapes these girls into unhealthy human beings.
Gurba does use humor throughout the book to deal with and talk about these events but the way she describes these events are also very real and raw. There are so many emotions that I personally felt reading this memoir, even when she did make use of humor in describing these events.
Discussion questions:
- How do the language and the description of these types of scenes make you feel with the use of humor?
- Can the stereotypes that society presses on people also be good? Are they just bad?
Gurba, Myriam. Mean. Coffee House Press, 2017.
