Content Warning: This section of the guide describes and discusses the play’s treatment of death by suicide, alcohol addiction, narcotic addiction, racism, incest, sexual assault of a minor, and child abuse.

The visible signs of maturity and aging on women’s bodies are a focal point of the play. When Jean first steps into the house, Mattie Fae loudly calls attention to her body, which has gone through puberty since they last saw each other. Twice, Mattie Fae exclaims with incredulity about the size of Jean’s breasts, feeling authorized to comment on parts of her body that signal sexual development. At 14, Jean is on the cusp of becoming a woman, which she tries to force with adult behaviors like smoking. But although she is precocious and intelligent, she is still very much a child.

Jean discovers that becoming a woman means learning how to handle unwanted eyes and even hands on her body, even before she enters womanhood. If the role of older women is to guide and protect the younger ones, their generational wisdom is entirely dysfunctional from the top down. Just as the older Weston sisters are mocked for aging out of sexual attractiveness, Jean is mocked for becoming sexually attractive, signaling that in the play’s world, women’s bodies are always subject to scrutiny and judgment.