Historical Context
-Gay Rights movements throughout the 1900's and continuing on today, picking up pace in the 1970's
-Throughout Alison and her father's lives there were varying levels of homophobia/gay rights
-It was taboo for her father to come out as a homosexual, but Alison seemed to have embraced her sexuality from a young age
-It was only in 1973 that homosexuality was taken off America's list of psychiatric disorders
-Alison claims that,"The secret subversive goal of my work is to show that women, not just lesbians, are regular human beings"Source She believes that men can be generic and almost everything is catered towards them, but when a woman is clearly the audience the message is for the woman to serve or impress men.
-She was personally affected by removal of her rights when her same-sex marriage license given by San Fransisco was revoked
-She wrote for a feminist newspaper, inspiring many people
-Her strip "Dykes to Watch Out For" was one of the longest ongoing representations of lesbians in pop culture
"Milk" is about Harvey Milk, one of the first openly gay politicians in America
Influences
-Chas. Addams
-Mad Magazine
-Norman Rockwell
-Edward Gorey
-At 22 she, "picked up a copy of “Gay Comix,” an anthology comic book edited by Howard Cruse. It was seeing his work there, along with stuff by other early gay and lesbian cartoonists like Mary Wings, Jennifer Camper, and Jerry Mills, that made [her] realize [that she] could draw cartoons about [her] own queer life." Source
-Cartoonist idols are Hergé and R. Crumb
Hi Tracy,
ReplyDeleteI thought you might enjoy reading this article about the apparent “paradox” of Gay Straight Alliances in Catholic school boards. I was the student trustee for the Hamilton Catholic school board when this whole scandal happened; it definitely created a stir of discussions and debates. Personally, I am not even 100% sure where I stand, because I see both sides of the story, BUT I think that at the end of the day, every student needs to feel loved and accepted and if starting a certain club will create that for a student, they should have the right to. (However- will students be willing to make compromises regarding the name?)
I think it’s interesting/great to see the increase in acceptance- though in some cases, merely ‘tolerance’- of gay people over the years. As we could see in Alison Bechdel’s story, had she been born one generation sooner, life as a lesbian would have been very different; perhaps suppressed like her father’s.
p.s. I found another interesting article from The Sun that discusses how 'times have changed' over the past 60 years. One point directly addresses the 'increase in acceptance' to which I was referring:
ReplyDelete"And who would have thought, 60 years ago, that a year before the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee an openly gay couple would attend the wedding of the second in line to the throne?"