Bruce Bechdel's Inappropriate Relationships
While we were reading Fun Home I wondered a lot about what was going on with Alison’s dad in terms of his inappropriate relationships with teenage boys. This information was dropped pretty nonchalantly at the beginning of the book so I hoped that Bechdel would talk about it more later on. I was a bit disappointed with how little she shared about this topic because it seemed very important especially in terms of gauging her father’s character. However, I do understand that this isn’t really related to the parts of her relationship with her dad that she expires in Fun Home. I decided to do some digging to see what I could find. I couldn’t find much more than what the reader can infer from the book about what Alison’s Dad actually did. According to Pennsylvania Law, it wasn’t illegal to supply alcohol to minors until May of 1988. Alison’s dad was arrested in June of 1974 (Center Title 18). Alison writes that there was a certain undertone to her father’s arrest. In t...