Comics and Culture

Alison's discovery of her father's affairs

“This is the path of great storytellers, creators who have something to say through comics and devote all their energies to controlling their medium, refining its ability to convert messages effectively” (Scott McCloud, 180). McCloud is describing those whose comics stem from a desire to depict underlying ideas, and Alison Bechdel is an exemplary illustration of these storytellers.

In her 2006 graphic novel, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, Alison Bechdel reflects on her broken relationship with her mentally ill and bisexual father. Via juxtaposition of Alison’s own experience coming out as a homosexual college student in the late 1970’s and descriptions of her father’s experience as a closeted bisexual man growing up in the 1950’s, Bechdel reveals a sociocultural transformation. This reading of Fun Home highlights the development of increasingly accepting attitudes towards the American lesbian, gay, and bisexual community. While Bechdel suggests that there is more work to be done regarding acceptance, even the acknowledgement of homosexuality is fundamentally distinctive from the closeted nature present prior to the 1970’s. Moreover, the medium of a graphic novel serves as an effective descriptor of this phenomenon, as pictorial representations can implicitly, and thus tactfully, depict otherwise controversial societal trends. 

Alison first exposes the reader to her father Bruce’s sexuality by depicting her own shock at the discovery; her avatar slumps from a seated position to lie down on the floor, and her crunched eyebrows are heavy with emotion (59). While she is devastated that she only is made aware of his affairs upon coming out herself, she is not taken aback by his decision to remain publically closeted. In the first half of the twentieth century, gay and lesbian Americans were met with extensive prejudice. Allison alludes to this when considering early twentieth century author Proust’s definition of homosexual characters as “inverts” to be “imprecise and insufficient” (97). Additionally, historical evidence suggests that the McCarthy Era in which her father grew up was particularly homophobic, associating gay culture with communism during the Cold War (Loftin 2012). In a letter Bruce sends to Alison in college, he explicitly states that he is jealous of the sexual freedom present during her young adulthood, as it was entirely absent during his youth (212). Thus, it is reasonable that he “juggled his public appearance and private reality” (101), as the era was not sociologically conducive towards nontraditional sexual preferences. By honoring this fact, Bechdel acknowledges that her father’s hidden sexual tension is not entirely his fault; this is the major thread of sympathy that she displays towards him.

An underwhelming experience.

Contrastingly, Alison depicts the decade in which she comes out as more accepting of homosexuality. The reader learns that she is a lesbian when she mentions her girlfriend off of the cuff (46), which is distinctive from the dramatic reveal of Bruce’s sexuality. Moreover, she describes her self-discovery process as including trips to the public library to read books about lesbianism, attendance at a gay union meeting, and mingling at a gay bar (74-6; 107). These publically sanctioned activities suggest a shift in societal attitudes, as homosexuality is decoupled from radical political agendas. This does not minimize the difficulty that Alison experiences in coming to terms with her identity, but rather serves to highlight the existence of a community that made this progression possible. For example, despite telling her roommate with anxiety, Alison finds that her roommate could care less about her sexual preferences (210). Therefore, one can identify a sociocultural transformation towards increased openness regarding American attitudes on sexuality via a close reading of Fun Home.

Alison alternates between a sarcastic and an indignant tone when describing her father’s affairs with young men, such as Roy, her babysitter (79). Additionally, she begins to doubt the boundaries of his skewed sense of morality, fantasizing the possibility that he would engage in sexual activities with his counselor (185). Though her bitterness is not unjustified, the reader must consider this point of view when reading the sociocultural. Particularly, the fact that Bruce is ultimately the novel’s antagonist does not mitigate nor enhance the burden that he experienced as a queer man born in the first half of the twentieth century. Thus, the reading of sociocultural trends must not be altered based on the author’s opinion of a character.

In the analysis of the graphic novel as an effective format for discussing sociocultural phenomena, I will compare it to the untitled artistic piece referred to as “One day this kid…” (Wojnarowicz 1990). With respect to structure, the works are similar in the combinatorial effect of image and text. However, the true similarity runs far deeper. The depiction of the authors’ avatars humanizes their words, providing a perspective through which the reader may interpret them. This bridges the works’ themes with the affected individuals, cultivating an open mind in the reader. I argue that the success of “One day this kid…”, and analogously, Fun Home, in detailing the sociocultural controversies concerning attitudes towards homosexuals relies on this fact. Ultimately, the choice of a conjugative medium enhances the transfer of provocative messages, which is arguably the fundamental purpose of the comic (Scott McCloud 1994). Thus, both works use art as a technically acceptable form with which to openly push for a tolerance and an open discourse regarding homosexuality.

The use of artistic mediums to highlight societal flaws is a common trend throughout the history of mankind. While one may not traditionally associate graphic novels with such depth, authors such as Art Spiegelman (Maus) and Alison Bechdel (Fun Home) use their craft to tell more than simply their fathers’ life histories. Specifically, Bechdel’s carefully crafted work underscores the development of increasing acceptance towards homosexuality in the second half of twentieth century America. Her autobiography provides such a compelling account via the juxtaposition both of pictorial and textual elements and of her father’s and her own experiences with sexual identity. While Bechdel’s emotionally-wrought narrative implies that she is not satisfied with the contemporary level of acceptance, she uses the memoir to both underscore the societal change and highlight the need for further progression towards the tolerance of all sexualities.