Wrapping It All Up!

In my previous entries regarding the theme of sexuality in Fun Home, I focused on both Bechdel and her father in separate instances, and which factors went into each characters' discovery, exposure, and contributing factors to discovering their homosexuality. As my posting in this blog comes to a close, I've decided to wrap it all off with the "aftermath", so to speak. No longer will I delve into the past of each person, but I will address how the events of Bechdel's father's death affected Bechdel, and her thoughts regarding them.

As most of the graphic novel is a recollection of Bechdel's memories and how her home and family life factored into the discovery of her sexuality, most instances of death are touched on and scattered throughout the story, almost as an afterthought. Bechdel recalls the instance in which she finds out about her father's death while she's in college, and her reaction to it. To her, his death is "absurd", and quite unexpected and random until she begins trying to make sense of his untimely death. Although it is never revealed that her father committed suicide, Bechdel still maintains that the fact that she came out to her parents might have been a contributing factor to his death. One of the last meaningful conversations with her father involved her lesbianism, and Bechdel still wonders, to this day, if this conversation was enough to spur her father to take his own life.

In a sense, with Bechdel questioning the inconsistencies and mysteries behind her father's death, it also allows her to explore the gap between them, as well as the similarities that tied them together; in terms of their respective gender identities and sexualities. Although Bechdel will never know the true manner in which her father died, she is still able to hold onto his history and his memory. Here is a good site that thoroughly covers both the themes of death and sexuality in an in-depth fashion.

At one point in the graphic memoir, eight-year-old Bechdel and her family travel to Jersey Shore so that her mother can visit her old roommate. Their babysitter, Roy, accompanies them, and they spend days walking around New Jersey and taking in the sights.

While she does so, Bechdel's eyes are open to the very different lifestyle all around her. The LGBTQ community was quite open in these times, and although Bechdel is too young to comprehend and grasp this new and curious concept of flamboyance that surround her, she does not feel threatened.

Looking back at those events years later, Bechdel is surprised that she was so blatantly unaware of the implications of those visits; she finds an old photograph of Roy in his underwear in her father's old belongings. The photo was taken during that visit to New Jersey, and was the first step in realizing Roy and her father's affair.

To further the note on the gay rights movement and its progression throughout the years, the 1970's were the years in which gays everywhere were beginning to flourish and delve into the new lifestyle. Here is a helpful and informative link that describes important milestones in the gay rights movement in America.

Ties of Sexuality Between Bechdel and her Father

The issue of Bechdel's father's concealment of his homosexuality was a stark contrast from Bechdel's own revelation during her college years. While Bechdel was able to explore her newfound sexuality and, although she was on her own, took initiative to go to her college's gay alliance meetings, Bechdel's father was not so lucky to openly experiment with his gayness. The generation that he was born into simply considered it taboo, and so his lovers were kept in secret, solidifying his need to closet himself and let his feelings of internalized homophobia fester and project onto his children, namely Bechdel herself.

This also plays into the house as a whole -- Bechdel's father pours his heart and soul into the old funeral home; a product of his upbringing and the era he grew up in. They were times of duty, not choice, and now that he was able to free himself of those confines, he could focus his energy into his own choices. The house was the haven of his immaculate nature, all embellished and decorative, in order to hide something else, something that, to Bechdel's observant eye, was made much more obvious as she continued to explore her sexuality.

I stumbled upon a very interesting article about internalized homophobia and heteronormativity that totally hit the nail on the head. While reading the entry, I instantly thought of Bechdel's father, and how, in his society and era while growing up, was probably instilled with the very same notions that only a woman and father could join together and raise a family together, and that there were very clear and separate gender roles that were designated to each parent. It made me wonder how this sort of mindset may have conflicted, and ultimately, caused him lifetime unhappiness.

More Themes on Sexuality

At one point in the novel, Bechdel recalls several moments of her childhood which piqued her curiosity and made her aware of her sexuality, in a more innocent sense.

Bechdel and her father sit in a diner  and a rather masculine-looking woman enters. She is a truck driver, and young Bechdel can't help but stare at her in wonder and in awe. These are the years in which she's uncomfortable with her feminine roles and expectations pushed on her from her father. She refuses to wear dresses and partake in conventionally feminine roles, such as cleaning the house. She becomes interested in playing dress up and wearing her father's clothes, and at one point, insists that her younger brother call her "Albert". So, it is inevitable that Bechdel would hold such a close, fleeting bond with this rather "butchy" truck driver, and that it's a memory that stays with her so clearly throughout her entire life.

Interestingly enough, it would seem that Bechdel's father already sensed the connection from Bechdel's fascination with masculinity and her chance exposure to lesbianism in the diner. Surprisingly, in today's world, female truck drivers are not so uncommon. Although back in Bechdel's time as a child, women who were more masculine and, as such, not much of a threat to mens' sense of entitlement, now this isn't the case, and more women are seeking jobs as truck drivers. Here's an article outlining the history of truck drivers and where gender comes into play.

Voice and Tone Regarding Bechdel's Sexual Orientation

Bechdel's recollections and discovery of her sexual identity and orientation are a major theme of Fun Home. Although the memoir focuses mainly on the complicated relationship with her closeted father, it is also a pinnacle step in which Bechdel discovers that she is attracted to women. In certain instances throughout her life, Bechdel begins noticing her own peculiar behaviour when it comes to her sexual identity. For example, from a young age, she is open about her disdain for dresses and, much to her father's chagrin, her disinterest in aesthetics and anything considered traditionally "feminine". 

Throughout the graphic novel, Bechdel keeps a very frank, almost detached way of describing many events that would typically be considered "eye-opening", in terms of discovering her sexuality. When she first realizes that she is gay, she is in the library looking at books, and it hits her suddenly, in an almost flippant manner. There is no fancy dialogue for how she feels. Funnily enough, she has had many hints towards her lesbianism, exhibited even earlier on in her childhood. 

In many ways, Bechdel's discovery of her sexuality and her tone and voice of which she writes about it can be dissected and mulled over, in relation to her relationship with her father and her experiences in childhood.

There's a Tumblr (a blog social networking site) called When I Came Out in which different Tumblr users can share their stories and revelations of their sexualities. Although we live in a different time than Bechdel, I wonder that if these social networking sites were available to Bechdel, or even her father, during their adolescent years, would the tragedy of Bechdel's father's death have happened at all? Would Bechdel have discovered her lesbianism much earlier on, and how would that affect her family?