Narratives are a popular genre throughout literature and within this genre one can find graphic narratives. Sometimes there are images of activities or body parts that some people would think of as explicit. The narrative Fun Home includes s a few images that some may believe to be inappropriate and even pornographic. Since, this narrative contains these images, some jump to the conclusion that the book is pornography, which is not true. Per Google, pornography is defined as “printed or visual material containing the explicit description or display of sexual organs or activity, intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional feelings.” The images shown in Fun Home are used to describe how the main character figured out …show more content…
In graphic novels, there are different situations and standards that would make something porn. Cole quotes writer Alan Moore, who describes porn in graphic novels as “our secret gardens where seductive paths of words and images lead us to the wide, blinding gateway of our pleasure, beyond which things may only be expressed in a language that is beyond literature, beyond all words” (Cole 122). This simply means that it is hard to find these “gardens,” and that there aren’t many pornographic novels. Bechdel uses the techniques that many other authors use, to keep her narrative from being considered porn. Towards the end of the narrative, Bechdel, has an explicit scene with her and another woman participating in sexual actions. Instead of focusing on the sex, she writes “Like Odysseus on the island of cyclops, I found myself facing a “being of colossal strength and ferocity, to whom the law of man and God meant nothing”” (Bechdel 214). Bechdel explained this sexual scene by relating it to literature and this makes it hard for the reader to even think about sex or become aroused by the images. This is a way to ensure that this scene is not considered porn because Bechdel gives more attention to the literature rather than pointing out the sexual actions taking place. For works that would be considered porn, there are different categories within …show more content…
These people bring to the public’s attention that there must be some sort of censorship in these narratives/novels. Back in 1986, a manager of a comic book store was arrested for the “possession and sale of obscene materials” (Cole 123). This was because some people believe it is wrong to sell the public explicit material, due to morals and religions. Since, this can happen often, authors like Alison Bechdel have created an account to hold money to hire lawyers for those arrested selling graphic novels with sexual material in them. Cole writes “Bechdel works with a number of lesbian and gay writers and artists to secure money for those sued for the creation, publication, and distribution of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual comics” (Cole 123). There may be controversy about censorship of sexual material, but the comics being sold are not considered pornography, and technically can still be sold in stores. The definitions of pornography surly back up this point and show that these graphic novels are legal to sell. If this isn’t enough to prove this point, then one can look to the first
4: what makes Bechdel’s story interesting? What makes Bechdel’s story so fascinating is that she took what would have been an amazing novel and turned it into a comic book. Aside from the author’s lack of celebrity, she created a profound grippy story. Most autobiographies are written by famous people. Bechdal’s creativity as a writer and illustrator led her to capture thousands of satisfying details, with word and images, along with emotional truth and humor to produce this extraordinary first person autobiography herself.
The comic “Compulsory Reading” expresses the way Bechdel feels about “must read” literature by using media and design, rhetorical patterns, and tone. The graphic novel is used to help get the best imagery and explain how Bechdel feels. The rhetorical patterns allow for the read to know why she feels that way. As well the tone also contributing to the way Bechdel
...ain groups consider books to be immoral does not mean they need to be pulled from the shelves. Censoring is acceptable for the youth, but there is an age when we all grow up and are able to handle books with explicit content.
Fun Home shows how as the reader we can become educated and heal from the stories like that of Alison Bechdel’s childhood. We also can see Alison’s journey of healing as well. This full circle journey is why literature is so versatile and important to our society and culture. We depend on the creation and growth of literary themes like the ones we see in Fun House to help us grow and deal with the real world.
Bechdel decides to live her reality and be her true self. After she reveals this information to her parents, her mother reveals the truth about her father. Bechdel’s father had affairs with many other men throughout his lifetime. Bechdel is shocked and does not understand how her father was able to do that for so long. When Bechdel realizes this, she instantly feels as if now she may be able to connect with her father. Her father was living behind the appearance of the perfect husband and man to hide his actual sexuality of being gay. She feels as if they can connect through their changing sexuality, even though she has decided to come out while her father has
In Alison Bechdel’s graphic novel entitled Fun Home, the author expresses her life in a comical manner where she explains the relationship between her and her family, pointedly her father who acts as a father figure to the family as she undergoes her exhaustive search for sexuality. Furthermore, the story describes the relationship between a daughter and a father with inversed gender roles as sexuality is questioned. Throughout the novel, the author suggests that one’s identity is impacted by their environment because one’s true self is created through the ability of a person to distinguish reality from fictional despotism.
In college she took a class on Ulysses, and to her surprise her father was very excited to help her, so much so that she described it as being “suffocating” (201). He recommended several books to help aid her studies. One of the books he recommends is Earthly Paradise, an autobiography of French novelist, performer, and famed lesbian Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette. His influence helped lead her to discover her sexuality. This became a huge bond to her father. When she reflects on her father’s death she is comforted by the fact that she may be connected. Bechdel frequently refers to A Happy Death throughout Fun Home, creating parallels between her family and Camus's story. Bechdel uses a particular passage from A Happy Death: "He discovered the cruel paradox by which we always deceive ourselves twice about the people we love - first to their advantage, then to their disadvantage" and describes it as "a fitting epitaph" for her parents' marriage (28). This passage draws attention to a point she makes when she reflects on her family life. Something always confused her about her parent’s relationship, but the stronger her relationship became with her father the more she understood
In an attempt to become more like her father she tries emulate him, as he tries to make her become anything but him. As she develops, she becomes more aware of masculinity and acutely aware that her father doesn’t fit the definition. Bechdel sees men at gas stations and on television and realizes that her father is missing something that those men seem to have. In her endeavor to counteract his femininity, she becomes more masculine. Although, even at a very young age, Bechdel doesn’t show interest for feminine things. Alison seems to be oblivious to all of her father’s attempts. In this image the reader sees Bechdel analyzing all of men at the gas station. Alison drew this frame to show her readers what it was she was noticing when she was young. The men in this image are more built than her father, they dress in more casual clothes with tattoos and chew tins. However, she doesn’t seem to pay attention to the ad of the Sunbeam Bread in the background with the image of Miss Sunbeam. It is as if Alison wants her readers to know that she was given chances to evaluate what girls her age should be like but she was more interested in knowing what men were like. She was often seen in gender neutral clothes, with a boyish haircut and as she got older, her father became more direct with his wants for her to dress like a girl; she resented having to wear skirts, dresses, or accessories and
To sufficiently take a side in the ever-growing debate of pornography, one must first define the concept around which this discourse surrounds itself. A working definition for pornography is a piece of material that has the object purpose of arousing erotic feelings. Radical feminists, however, strictly define it as “the act of sexual subordination of women” (Dworkin 1986).
In the graphic novel Fun Home, by Allison Bechdel, sexual self-discovery plays a critical role in the development of the main character, Allison Bechdel herself; furthermore, Bechdel depicts the plethora of factors that are pivotal in the shaping of who she is before, during and after her sexual self-development. Bechdel’s anguish and pain begins with all of her accounts that she encountered at home, with her respective family member – most importantly her father – at school, and the community she grew up within. Bechdel’s arduous process of her queer sexual self-development is throughout the novel as complex as her subjectivity itself. Main points highlight the difficulties behind which are all mostly focused on the dynamics between her and her father. Throughout the novel, she spotlights many accounts where she felt lost and ashamed of her coming out and having the proper courage to express this to her parents. Many events and factors contributed to this development that many seem to fear.
In Fun Home: A Family Tragic Comic, Alison Bechdel uses the graphic novel technique of bringing visuals and concise text to her audience to reveal the relationship with her father in a perspective that can not be modified through the readers perspective and interpretation. Bechdel employs this type of writing style to help visualize a better interpretation of how she describes the differences in both her and her fathers’ gender roles throughout the novel. This tactic helps discuss and show how these gender roles were depicted as opposite from one another. But, in this case being opposite from one another made them gain a stronger relationship of understanding and reviling that these differences were actually similarities they also shared.
In chapter one, “Old Father, Old Artificer”, of her graphic novel Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, the young Bechdel generated her identity through the tensions and mysteries that engulfed her family the home. Masculinity, physical strength and a modern outlook were her personality traits as she grew, becoming the “Butch to [her father’s] Nelly” (269) and his opposite in several aspects. A conscious effort was made on her part to set her own pace from what her father expected of her. He was a strong, influential figure within her life. Expressing emotions towards her father was strictly not allowed in the home. Bechdel was left “rushing from the room in embarrassment” (273) on the one unforgettable occasion that she went to kiss him goodnight. She...
The poem “An Opinion on the Question of Pornography” is a comparison of intellectual intercourse and sexual intercourse. At times, Szymborska finds intellectual pursuits more worthwhile than sexual ones. When regarding sexual intercourse, she has a consistently negative tone and constantly uses words with a negative connotation,
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel and Rape Fantasies by Margret Atwood both express the heteronormative stereotypes and repression. Fun Home is a comic autobiography of Alison Bechdel’s life from a young girl to a young adult as she discovers with her own lesbian sexuality, while her father Bruce’s suspicious death, and the secret homosexuality that he kept hidden from everyone throughout his life while having affairs with underage boys. Rape Fantasies is a short story in which the narrator and protagonist, Estelle and her co-worker converse over their different “rape fantasies” as they play a game of cards. Both Fun Home and Rape Fantasies slowly reveal the different undertones and personalities of each character through their
Thus, Dictionary.com the word pornographic means to constituting or resembling pornography; obscene. How I can remember the word pornographic is adjective, the synonyms word for the word pornographic is X-rated, and the antonyms word is cleaned. In the second paragraph author Andre Lorde wrote, “There are frequent attempts to equate pornography and eroticism, two diametrically opposed uses of the sexual” (Lorde 185). Correspondingly, Dictionary.com the word eroticism means the quality or character of being erotic.