In this paper, I argue that Alison Bechdel shows the reader that she and her father are inversions of one another through visual and textual evidence throughout Fun Home. The two are homosexual and struggle with expressing their true identity due to what society believes is the gender norm.
Gender is so inescapable that in our society we assume it is in our genes and these definite responsibilities run the way we live in the most profound and inescapable ways. It makes it difficult for people to express who they truly are. Society has expectations of gender and gender norms. This is because gender is one of the ways that we as humans organize our lives. In the novel Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, the reader is able to see these societal expectations in the memoir. …show more content…
She claims that she and her father are both inversions of one another. In the memoir Alison states “Not only were we inverts. We were inversions of one another” (Bechdel 98). She also makes note of how she fights to highlight her masculinity to society. While Allison is doing this, it makes it a struggle for her father to prevent her from expressing her masculinity. She views her father’s attempts to try to get her to express her femininity as an attempt for him to express his femininity through her.
If the reader were to closely examine the picture on page 89, the reader would also be able to see this. Alison’s father is looking at Allison while she is looking at him. Thus, showing the reader what Allison meant when saying “It was a war of cross purposes, and so doomed to perpetual escalation” (98). This page illustrates the differences and strains that are prevalent between Alison’s relationship with her