Homosexuality In Alison Bechdel's Fun Home

Hidden sexuality is one that hides their own personal sexuality. Embracing sexuality makes an individual a better person than hiding one’s sexuality simply that one may be supported as Alison is in Fun Home. Fun Home written by Alison Bechdel is a tragicomic about the main character Alison and her dysfunctional family living in a “Fun Home.” Whereas hiding one’s sexuality is lying, embracing sexuality makes one a better person given that Alison was accepted when she “came out,” while her father kept it a secret and was not the ideal father for it.
In Fun Home, Alison attends Simon’s Rock Early College so she does not know what is going on back at home with her father. While Alison is in college exploring the unknown lesbian in herself, she decides to come out via letter from college. She states “But it was a hypothesis so thorough and convincing that I saw no reason not to share it immediately,” that lets us know she did not plan to keep her sexuality hidden unlike her father. She even joins a gay union on campus to embrace

her sexuality. Alison is able to feel comfortable with her sexuality and come out of the closet because of the supportive community, but why is Bruce so afraid? Why does he not come out of the closet? Alison’s mother accepts her daughter being a lesbian, but her response was telling Alison that “your father has had affairs with other men” for quite some time actually. Alison did not really understand her father’s actions and that explains the allusions used in the memoir. Bechdel says that Bruce is gay by writing in her diary that “he appeared to be an ideal husband and father…but would an ideal husband and father have sex with teenage boys.” Bruce is not all what he pretends to be.
Bruce is having affairs with the babysitter Roy and other young men and no one knows about it until the mother finds out. How she find out is not discovered. Her mother tells her that “He…He was molested by a farm hand when he was young,” maybe that is the reason for his actions. Bruce is ashamed of his sexuality and that is the reason he keeps it as a secret. He continues to keep it a secret even after his daughter comes out of the closet. Bruce would rather lie to his family and society about his hidden sexuality. He lies right in front of his family’s faces. His sexuality bled through his skin with interior designing, forcing his daughter to dress more feminine than she actually is, and wearing female clothing also showing clues of his hidden sexuality.
Bechdel includes illustrations in the first chapter of Bruce forcing pink flower wall paper into Alison’s bathroom.

Alison states that she hates pink, but her father does not take that into consideration. He likes the wall paper and so he tells Alison “Tough Titty” and puts it up anyway. Alison knows how talented her father is which is supported by the statement “My father could spin garbage… …into gold.” He not only forced pink flower wall paper into her room, but he makes her dress as a girly girl which she is not. After Bruce tries to force her to wear a burette and pearls, Alison thinks her father attempts to express his feminism though her. Alison finds a photo of her father in a women’s bathing suit, “He’s wearing a women’s bathing suit. A fraternity prank? But the pose he strikes is not mincing or silly at all. He’s lissome, elegant.” This proves that he hides his sexuality in real life but pictures is proof of his hidden

homosexuality.
Bechdel have visual images on every page to stimulate reader’s senses. She connects through literature as a comparison of her own life while creating her own story .The art plays a very important role in this memoir. Bechdel would draw pictures to express feelings when she would not narrate. Most drawings were of guys she noticed because she tries to
“abandon the female identity forced upon her; namely, she began carrying a pocket knife, cut her hair short, and began to spit occasionally. “I continued using the girls’ bathroom and checking the female box on questionnaires. But in my head I occupied my own private Switzerland, where I spent the remainder of my childhood in splendid neutrality.”
Overall, Bruce hides his sexuality throughout his entire life. Alison suspects his homosexuality even as a young girl. Her suspicious are proven when she finds the photographs of her father and childhood babysitter Roy, and also when her mom tells her that her father has had affairs with Roy and young men. Alison refuses to hide her homosexuality and learns to embrace who she really is. She is not afraid of what the world or her family will think about her. She is determined to be happy and not live a life of lies, unlike her father Bruce. Bruce lies about who he really is not just to society, but to his family. He lies to his daughter who she thought she connect with on a sexuality level.