Bruce Bechdel: How a lack of intersectionality makes gay men perpetuate homophobia
There is so much to say about Bruce as he descends into repression. On page 120, we see an image of Bruce when he was young wearing a woman’s bathing suit, not for a joke or humiliation, but instead carrying an air of elegance. This image gives us a glimpse of a young Bruce that is antithetical to him as an adult, back when he was comfortable displaying feminine traits. I think it's specifically meaningful because it's physical proof that Bruce was not always as repressed about his sexuality. While it's common to see stories of queer people that come out after years of repression or those who stay in the closet and repress forever, he breaks the expectation by showing us a past where he seemed to embrace it, essentially devolving.
We discover more of Bruce’s relationship with homosexuality on page 100 when Alison finds a photograph of Roy, who was Alison’s underage babysitter. It features Roy laying shirtless on a bed, taken when Bruce took his children and Roy on vacation. Alison describes the ambiance of the picture, blurry and ethereal in the morning light. This gives us a glimpse of Bruce’s attraction through his own eyes, his own perception of it unclear and almost unreal, radiating with quiet longing.
At the same time, the photo was kept in an envelope labeled ‘family’ which included other images of Alison and her siblings. This contrast emphasized the taboo in his relationship with an 17 year old boy, kept among memories of his own children. Alison is aware of her conflicting feelings, wondering if she’d still consider the image beautiful if the subject was an underage girl instead.
Throughout the book, there are frequent parallels between Alison and Bruce, as well as how their gender impacts their sexualities differently. While Alison grew more confident in presenting herself as masculine and lesbian, Bruce grew more uncomfortable with femininity, repressing it all together. I think this can be attributed to how our strongly patriarchal society views femininity, and those who are associated with it, as inherently inferior. With this context, we can understand why a man going out with a dress on in the 80’s could be more dangerous than a woman wearing masculine clothing. For a society that promotes masculinity as superior, it's difficult to understand why a man would “choose” to present themselves as weak, while it might be more understanding that women would pursue masculinity in an attempt to be perceived more equally.
Thus, we can connect Bruce’s struggles with his sexuality and with understanding his daughter to be a lack of intersectionality, or feminism. Intersectionality is the understanding that systems of oppression often coincide, so a queer woman is more disenfranchised in society because she is both female and queer. I think Bruce displaying misogyny could explain both his discomfort with being perceived as feminine or queer, as well as why he pushes his daughter to present femininely. This disconnect can be due to envy or a lack of understanding, because Alison has the ability to be feminine without antagonizing herself, so he pushes his daughter away because he refuses to validate her preference for presenting more masculine.
Obviously, this is a widely simplistic idea, because women are already at a disadvantage in our patriarchy. Alison may find it easier to publicly identify as a masc lesbian because she never had status within our system either way. However, Bruce is still able to benefit from the system as a white man, so it makes more sense that he is resistant to jeopardizing his position by aligning himself with femininity and queerness.
Exploring Bruce Bechdel’s character through a lens of intersectionality between gender and sexuality allows us a glimpse into understanding his complex character. Perhaps if he had done more introspection to reject misogyny, he could have cultivated a more positive view of femininity, allowing him to accept not only himself as a gay man, but his daughter as a lesbian woman.
Hi Ashton,
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting topic! I think that Bruce boxed in Alison partially because in his mind, he was giving her an opportunity to express femininity that he never was able to express, and refusing that opportunity was breaking down molds that he had attempted to conform to. A girl refusing expressing masculinity openly, to him, made all his attempts at repressing his femininity void. Great blog!
Hi Ashton, sorry for being weird the last time I commented on your blog. I think your exploration of intersectionality is really interesting, and your mention of Bruce's "regressing" piques my curiosity. I don't have the book on hand as I write this, but if I remember correctly, Bruce has friends in some of the gay communities they visited. And yet he married a woman, toured europe, and was forced to go home and assume the family business when his father died (interestingly, this could serve as the start of a coming of age story where he would take responsibility, but in real life it is not so, and he was instead just cut off from whatever aspirations he had kept). I assume that Bruce must have married her as a beard, or something, but Bechdel doesn't go into it much.
ReplyDeleteHi Ashton! You raise some really good points about how the "goodness" of masculinity in a patriarchal society helps Alison feel more free expressing her masculinity in comparison to Bruce's repressed femininity. I think an important element of his "devolvement," as you put it, is location. As a young adult, Bruce was living in Greenwich Village, which is known for being a very queer part of New York. He also lived abroad in Europe. Both of these places, especially in comparison to Beech Creek, are a lot more accepting of and open to non-traditional gender expressions. Especially since Bruce was essentially forced to go back home, it's fairly understandable that he would "devolve" and repress himself once faced with a less accepting community.
ReplyDeleteHi Ashton, I think you make some really awesome points about the society Bruce lives in. As a white man, "gay" is often used as an accusation or a way to be inferior especially at a younger age. It creates a premise where he's constantly repressing himself, and definitely adds a lot to what we know about Bruce's childhood. Alison can already be looked down upon for simply being a woman, and even without the societal standards she might have an easier time coming out than him. It would also be easy for Bruce to continue the patterns of not fully expressing himself if he was already used to that dynamic at an older age. Amazing job :)
ReplyDeleteThat mysterious photo of Bruce in the women's bathing suit is a complex piece of "evidence" indeed. As you note, Alison is primarily struck by Bruce's apparent LACK of irony--he doesn't seem to be hamming it up, like we might expect if this were some kind of fraternity prank. It's not like those photos of JD Vance in "drag," where it's clear that he's wearing lipstick and a wig as a kind of "joke" rather than some kind of sincere exploration of his identity. Presumably the photo is taken by a frat brother, someone who likely DOES assume it's a joke, so it's more like an unintended aspect of Bruce is revealed in the photo--his elegance, his "lissomeness," the fact that he's maybe more comfortable in this ensemble than he'd like to admit publicly. So it simultaneously seems to "reveal" the complexity of his gender/sexuality AND it shows how he still manages to "pass" within the straight world, playing it off as a joke.
ReplyDeleteI would suggest that we do see some of Bruce's internalized misogyny related to homophobia start to dissipate in the later scenes: while he still seems skeptical of "the new freedom" on campuses, and he snorts in derision when Alison mentions that the Gay Student Union is protesting the movie _Cruising_ because of its stereotypical representations of gay men. But he's also taking one of HER book recommendations and reading _Flying_ by Kate Millett, in addition to pointing Alison toward the crucial memoir of 1920s Paris by Collette, who depicts gay and lesbian communities in a scene that Bruce insists she "has to" learn about. This book is arguably the "call to adventure" in her own hero's journey of coming out, and we need to acknowledge the role that Bruce plays in this.
Hey Ashton! Great post! Bruce's consistent struggle with his internalized homophobia is one of the most potent aspects in Fun Home. In fact it almost becomes a character in and of itself as it affects Alison's upbringing and later understanding of her sexuality. His additional lack of feminism is an important place of contention within their relationship. It is very interesting to see how this perpetuation of bias is portrayed in Fun Home.
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