Bruce’s response to Alison’s sexuality

I will discuss how Bruce react to Alison’s gender and sexuality in this paper. In fun home, when Alison grows up, she struggles about her body and outlooks. Her father Bruce has been forcing her to wear girlish clothes that she doesn’t like. After she goes to college, she explores her gender identity and she is open about her gender identity. Bruce shows support for Alison in his own way.

When Alison is a little kid, her father has been enforcing femininity on Alison, which makes Alison uncomfortable. Alison expresses her anger when her father insists to place pink wallpaper with flower patterns in her room(p. 7, top two panels). Alison’s father Bruce forces Alison to wear yellow turtleneck in order to match her dress, but Alison doesn’t care about it at all(p. 15, bottom left panel). Her father also expresses his dissatisfaction of Alison’s taste, because Alison has been resisting girlish outlook. Like her father who has been oppressed by society about his gender orientation, Alison also hides her gender favor because of her father’s pressure on her. When her father asks her if she wants to look like a woman who has men’s outlooking, she says no(p. 117-119). “WHAT ELSE COULD I SAY?”(p. 119, top left panel). At that moment, she wants to say yes, but she says no because of her father’s mocking tone of that woman. When she is young, even though she isn’t clear about her sexual orientation yet, she clearly doesn’t want to wear girls’ clothes. She has already had an idea about her gender.

The reason why her father enforces compulsory heterosexuality on Alison is not just because he believes that Alison has to conduct heterosexuality and binary gender expression so life will be easier for her. Actually, her father wants to express femininity that he wants to have through Alison. “BUTCH TO HIS NELLY” expresses Alison’s resistance of compulsory heterosexuality and her father’s eagerness to perform femininity on Alison(p. 15, bottom left panel). “BUTCH” is a reference Alison uses for herself. “NELLY” refers to her father’s desire for feminine expressions. He can’t express femininity on himself because he is afraid of others’ comments. He has to hide that he is gay by marrying Alison’s mother. He is obsessed with making furnitures because he wants everything on the surface to be perfect, like his outlooking. The way he believes is perfect is what society believe is perfect, like heterosexuality and binary gender expression. Alison even believes that her father “treated his furniture like children, and children like furniture”(p. 14, bottom left panel). Her father makes perfect furniture and treat furniture like his children because it makes him a perfect husband in other people’s perspective. However, he is in fear about the rumor that he had sex with teenage boys. Bruce is too afraid to express himself in the way he likes. He enforces these gender expressions on his daughter on the one hand to satisfy his own favor of feminine expressions. On the other hand, he wants to protect his daughter from others’ homophobic judgement.

Even though Alison’s father makes Alison to do a lot of things against her will, he shows his love in his own way. When Alison goes to high school, her father discovers that she could be his “intellectual companion”(p. 198, top left panel). Alison is the only student who is active in his class, while others looks tired or bored(p. 198-199). Her father Bruce expresses his love obscurely. “YOU’RE THE ONLY ONE IN THAT CLASS WORTH TEACHING”(p. 199, bottom panel speech bubble). Alison replies, “IT’S THE ONLY CLASS I HAVE WORTH TAKING”(p. 199, bottom panel speech bubble). They sit in the car, and both of them don’t have expressions on their face. They don’t talk a lot when both of them sit in the car, but they seem know each other when they are silenced in the car. Sitting in the car is a special communication between them. When she goes to college, Alison asks her father for books written by James Joyce. She feels that her father is delighted. In the panel, her father is back to Alison and holds his chin with him right hand(p. 204, middle right panel). He says, “HMM. LET ME THINK”(p. 204, middle right panel speech bubble). He pretends he is thinking, but Alison knows at that moment, he is “elated” that her daughter asks him about literature(p. 204, middle right panel thought bubble). Bruce doesn’t like show his expression. Even he is happy, he covers his chin to hide his happiness. Alison and her father don’t show their love to each other by physical contact like hugging or kissing, but they show their love the way the other know.

Bruce doesn’t have courage like Alison to come out of closet, but he supports Alison when Alison comes out to him. She comes out to her parents with a letter(p. 210, middle right panel). Then she gets a phone call from her father. Her father asks her why she has to label herself as lesbian(p. 211, top left panel). Alison describes it as “OUR PATHS CROSSED BUT WE DID NOT MEET”(p. 211, top left panel). “Paths” refers that she and her father are all gay. She chooses to be open about her identity, but her father chooses to hide his. In the letter, he says he supports Alison. However, he says he still could not come out. “Taking sides is rather heroic, and I am not a hero”(p. 211, bottom panel). He wishes that he could be that hero, but he admits that he is not capable of coming out. Being open gay is very difficult at his generation(p. 211, bottom panel). When Bruce tells Alison he likes to wear girls’ clothes when he is little, Alison yells at him saying she likes to wear boys’ clothes when she is young. There are 24 panels describing the scene, but poses of them barely change. They sit in the car again. When Alison yells at him, she reaches her right arm out to him. She blames him make her wear clothes she doesn’t like when she is young. She wants an answer of why he still forces her if he has been there himself before. However, her father doesn’t say a word or move after that at all. He hides his identity all these years and he always believes that he cannot be open about himself, because of the conservative environment. However, his daughter wears boys’ clothes and open about her identity, and she is doing her life well. On the one hand, he questions his coercing of Alison when she is young. He makes her to wear girlish clothes, because he believes that it would be hard for her if she dresses up like a boy. However, she is great when she is open about her gender. On the other hand, he questions him why he is not capable of being open about his identity like his daughter. They don’t talk again in the car, and both of them are silenced. Alison seems has the answer. Later he takes Alison for a movie, and he even takes her to a gay bar to support her decision(p. 222-223). Even though he doesn’t have any expression on his face when they watch movie and go to the gay bar, he shows his support for Alison.

Alison and her father Bruce have been in opposite of each other in terms of self identification. Alison chooses to be open about her identity, but Bruce doesn’t. When Alison is young, she thinks her father only care about his furniture. However, she finally knows that her father loves her in his own way. He forces her to dress up the way she doesn’t like, because he wants to protect her. He expresses his sorry that he doesn’t have courage to be open about his gender like she does. Bruce is not a talkative person, but he shows his love for Alison in the way Alison understands.

Works Cited

Bechdel, Alison. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. First Mariner Books Edition. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2007.

写于2018年年底的学术垃圾，我是玻璃心，不喜勿喷。