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Summary
Summary
Who were the jujitsuffragettes?
In the early twentieth century, women in England demanded the right to vote--and faced violent retaliation. Rather than back down, the suffragist group Women's Social and Political Union formed its own security unit. Edith Garrud, a pioneering self-defense instructor, trained them to fight back against abuse and arrest while pursuing long-overdue rights.
This graphic retelling of Garrud's life reveals the resilience and (often physical) resistance of her era's voting-rights activists. Featuring an introduction from Elsa Dorlin (Self-Defense: A Philosophy of Violence), The Bodyguard Unit explores an explosive stage of the fight for suffrage.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this high-energy work, Xavier highlights Edith Garrud (1872--1971), a self-taught British martial artist dedicated to educating women in how to protect themselves amid a fraught period in early 20th-century England. During the suffragist movement, activists often faced brutal retaliation such as beatings by police, violent mass arrests, and forced feeding when jailed. Believing self-defense to be an essential life skill and hoping to generate more business for their financially struggling dojo, Garrud and her husband William offered to train the members of Emmeline Pankhurst's Women's Social and Political Union in jujitsu. Employing retro superhero comics style and fluidly rendered, cartoony, mostly white characters, Lugrin breathes life into the pursuits of the self-named Bodyguard Unit. The kinetic narrative traces the 1910 formation of this little-known group, leading up to a climactic confrontation in the 1914 Battle of Glasgow. The overarching narrative and concluding resources gloss over jujitsu's Japanese roots. By emphasizing Garrud's pursuit to instruct women in how to turn their "opponent's physical superiority against him," the creators present an empowering work both in content and visuals, about the figure who taught women how to take back their power. Ages 13--up. (Aug.)
Horn Book Review
This immersive comic introduces readers to the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), a radical group of real-life early-twentieth-century English feminists led by Emmeline Pankhurst. Needing to mitigate the physical harm faced by members, the militant activists of WSPU coordinated a self-defense and security unit and recruited jujitsu expert Edith Garrud to train them. Garrud's life and perspective ground the absorbing, dialogue-heavy, and fast-paced fictionalized narrative as "jujitsuffragettes" learn, strategize, build solidarity, and engage in aggressive direct action together ("Deeds, not words!"). Embedded primary sources such as political cartoons and black-and-white newspaper images pull the facts and narrative together with striking, powerful clarity. The cartooning, beautifully rendered in muted, old-timey hues, presents information about jujitsu, the inner workings and tensions of the WSPU, and everyday indignities faced by the subjects. Frenetic sound effect and motion lines accentuate setting and mood. While enduring themes such as resisting oppression and asserting autonomy abound, the book remains centered on its specific time, place, and people. Pair with Chambers's Finish the Fight! and Dionne's Lifting as We Climb (both rev. 9/20) for perspectives from suffragists of color and broader coverage of gender justice. Back matter includes a timeline, citations, and additional historical information. Elisa GallSeptember/October 2023 p.85 (c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
A graphic nonfiction account of how early 20th-century British suffragettes used jujitsu to literally fight for the vote. Focusing on Edith Garrud, who co-owned a dojo in London with her husband, William, the book tells the little-known story of how a subset of activist women agitating for women's suffrage were trained in jujitsu. They used martial arts to cope with the violence and police brutality they encountered while peacefully marching and assembling. Garrud taught self-defense to the Bodyguard unit, a group affiliated with Emmeline Pankhurst's Women's Social and Political Union. The colorful panels illustrating the action are dynamic and engaging, expressing energy, speed, and noise. Compelling historical illustrations and photographs are interspersed. The dialogue, which imparts background context, is mostly snappy but occasionally too obviously didactic. The book chronicles the several years leading up to the dramatic 1914 Battle of Glasgow, when suffragettes fought Scottish police who were trying to arrest Pankhurst. The narrative also offers important detours into the prevalence and general societal acceptance of domestic violence as well as schisms within the suffragette movement regarding the most effective and politically palatable tactics. Scenes between Garrud and her husband provide insights into their marital and work lives. One line confusingly implies that Japan was colonized, and the book disappointingly includes no sources. However, a foreword by scholar Elsa Dorlin and helpful backmatter, including a timeline and historical notes, add useful information. Engaging feminist history attractively presented. (illustration and photo credits) (Graphic nonfiction. 12-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
This tackles a little-known figure of suffragette and martial arts history, Edith Garrud, England's first female jujitsu instructor. Edith and her husband and fellow instructor, William, are invited to give a demonstration at a women's club, which turns out to be the WSPU (Women's Social and Political Union). Though she first expected the WSPU to be radicals, Edith is won over by their cause, and she teaches the suffragettes how to defend themselves and their founder, Emmeline Pankhurst. The artists combine their cartoony drawing style with an old-timey color palette, making the story feel both accessible to modern readers and rooted in its own time period. The author and artists have clearly done their research: Edith describes and demonstrates locks, throws, and stealth tactics that will be familiar to readers who practice ju ("gentle") martial arts, and work as a great introduction to readers new to the subject. Readers will also learn about England's suffragette movement--such as division within the WSPU and a board game based on the police's "cat-and-mouse" policies--and get a kick out of the historical illustrations peppered throughout, including a political cartoon of policemen cowering before Edith. This engaging and informative graphic biography, which includes historical back matter, about an overlooked yet influential suffragist and martial artist deserves a spot in every graphic-novel collection.
