Paper Girls begins in the early morning after Halloween 1986, when newspaper delivery girl Erin is accosted by three teenage boys who demand she hand over a paper under threat of sexual violence. Like a knight on his trusty steed, Mac rides to Erin’s rescue, saving her from the wolfish desires of Lucas Kurzenberger and threatening to inform Lucas’ father that “he’s threatening little girls.” Obviously, Mac is far from the quintessential hero from classic 80s films. She is a twelve year old girl who smokes, curses like a sailor, and, with the help of her girlfriends, protects other papergirls from the predatory Lucas Kurzenbergers of the world. Nevertheless, she is Erin’s hero because she is the “first paperboy [in the area] that wasn’t a…you know.” Mac is Erin’s hero because she is the first girl to achieve the mobility and freedom that paper routes offer but are often typically reserved for boys. With this potentially violent introduction to our female protagonist and her instant papergirl chums, it is clear that Vaughan and Chiang’s graphic novel immerses readers in the papergirls’ routes and worlds, observing how they both resist, and cope defensively in, a male dominated world. Although the girls’ altercation with Lucas and his gang cements their friendship, the graphic novel is careful to resist defining these girls solely by the male figures in their lives. As twelve-year-old girls, Erin, Mac, KJ, and Tiff are not typical 80s heroines who chase boys or pine over losing them. Instead, the graphic novel depicts pre-pubescent girls not yet interested in the opposite sex but in each other’s lives and the material and social opportunities paper routes can offer them. The girls develop emotionally supportive and protective relationships while always chasing that paper.
About the presenterNicole Batchelor
I am currently an adjunct professor at Lehigh University. My scholarship focuses primarily on representations of gender, sex, and sexuality in Early Modern literature and popular culture.