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  • Essay / Questions of Sexuality and Identity in Alison Bechdel's 'Fun Home'

    Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic delves into Allison Bechdel's difficult relationship not only with her father, but also with herself. She is gripped by unanswered questions regarding her sexuality and that of her father. The autobiography explores and details Bechdel's relationship with her father, and how the suppression of her own identity pushed her to explore and express her own. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Bechdel's suppression of identity begins at a young age. Her father, Bruce, has an idea of ​​the family he wants and the role Allison should play. Whether or not she fits into the artificial vision her father constructed, Allison must please her father and fit the mold. “The butch has his nelly,” as Allison calls it. While Bechdel made a habit of portraying her father as a stereotypical gay man in the late '60s, '70s, and '80s (tennis shoes, cutoff shorts, and tank tops), she remembers pushing away her father's desire that she has longer hair, wears dresses, and generally looks more feminine. A power struggle of sorts, because Bechdel wants to express himself, but Bruce wants to dress him up and in the way he wishes he could express himself. This becomes evident throughout Bechdel's childhood, with Bruce constantly dressing Allison down and even once threatening to harm her if he saw her without her barrette. However, the need to express everyone's gender wasn't just Bruce trying to express his femininity through Allison, but Allison trying to express masculinity in herself to make up for the lack of if her father had her do. Allison states that “not only were we inverts, but we were inversions of each other. While I was trying to compensate for something unmanly about him...he was trying to express something feminine through me. » One such example is what Bechdel calls "his and his father's shared respect for masculine beauty." Bechdel flips through a men's fashion magazine and looks at a suit with a vest, suggesting his father get one. However, it wasn't something Allison actually wanted for her father, but rather something she wanted for herself, just like her father wished she could have her velvet and pearls. One of the most pivotal moments in the novel is Bechdel's first real meeting. with the representation, and the moment when it begins to identify with itself. Bechdel says she “has been lying for a long time, since she was four or five years old. “It was at this age that she knew that instead of being traditionally female, she was much more like a butch female. On a trip with his father to Philadelphia, they ended up eating at a restaurant, where Bechdel said they both saw "a most disturbing sight." A truck driver, dressed in stereotypically "butch" clothing, enters the restaurant and four-year-old Allison is captivated. She had no idea that women had haircuts or wore men's clothes, and the idea fascinated her. His father, who also saw this spectacle, was horrified. He asks Allison if that's what she wants to look like, and although she answers no, the way her eyes are depicted as being wide open, Allison obviously doesn't see a problem with that idea. The idea has sustained Allison over the years, but she goes on to say, as they get back into the hearse, that the same vision may have haunted her father. However, it is not until early adulthood that Bechdel truly begins the transition toward owning and expressing her identity. It seems.