“This is No Time for Being Underwater”: Ableism, Rape Culture and Care Work in <i>The Nowhere Girls</i>

Abstract

This paper analyzes ableism, rape culture, and care work in Amy Reed’s The Nowhere Girls. Although this novel offers complex and diverse forms of care work by all three protagonists as they collectively mobilize anti-rape resistance and enact dynamic solidarity that is both responsive and relational, Erin’s character arguably activates the most radical employment. Calling for change in the world while also endeavoring to facilitate such change, she offers multifaceted and nuanced care work in a number of ways, including: (1) through friendship and family, (2) care for herself, and (3) creative activist care that explicitly supports other victim-survivors.