Struggles with Sexuality

     One major theme in the book Fun Home is the relationship between sexuality and society, exhbited largely through the main character's father.

This difference probably has to do with two factors: time and gender. First of all, Alison's father was a part of an older generation than she was. Thankfully, society has changed since then, but in older generations it was much less common for sexualities other than straight to be accepted. I think of the coming-out story of Ellen Degeneres that took place not very long ago, in 1997. When she came out publicly on her sitcom, there was huge backlash and resulted in her losing her entire TV show. This was one of the first huge LGBTQ+ matters that was public, and was obviously terribly received by society. So, with the knowledge that Alison Bechdel was born in 1960, it can be assumed that her father lived in a time that was even more intolerant of the gay community. Therefore, it makes sense that her father had to live with his sexuality under wraps for all of his life, having secret affairs with men and trying to appear straight. Bechdel sums up this idea when she says, "He used his skillful artifice not to make things, but to make things appear to be what they were not"(Bechdel 16). Living in secret must have been a huge struggle for her father, exhibited in his random acts of violence and intense manner. 

Another reason it was difficult for Alison's father to live his life honestly was because of his gender. A problem that society is still struggling with is the concept that men need to be masculine and women need to be feminine. During the time the story takes place, society was even more rigid in this idea than today.  Because being masculine tends to translate to straight, her father was also forced to try to appear masculine to others. Though there were some times that he was seen expressing femininity at home, like the constant sunbathing or use of a bronzing stick (Bechdel 16), her father made sure to give off a masculine persona to others. At one point, Bechdel expresses her belief that when she was a child, that "he was trying to express something feminine through me" (Bechdel 98). The fact that her father felt as if he had to put on a manly mask to fit into society is sad, and if we believe the author's theory that his death was not an accident, hiding his sexuality his whole life may be a reason into why he unfortunately committed suicide.

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