father is sexually abusive.

Beverly’s father is highly possessive of his daughter, and insists she constantly reassure him that she remains “his girl”. He approaches her menancingly, touches her inappropriately, and he is the reason for her high levels of anxiety about the fact that she has just begun to menstruate. She tries, unsuccessfully, to hide this fact from him – expecting him to respond by increasing his abuse, now that she has reached ‘womanhood’. Indeed, when she cuts her hair, and accidentally leaves an anonymous love-note from her ‘secret admirer’ where her father can find it, he tries to rape her.

While this is an effective depiction of an important social issue, its use within the framework of It is problematic. Pennywise the Clown is...

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