One of the central ideas of Fun Home that I immediately picked up on and identified with was the idea of sexual shame. This is of course referring to the fact that Bruce chooses to hide behind the facade of "married life" instead of having pride in who he is.
This goes hand in hand with the truth that Alison chooses to not be ashamed of her sexuality and chooses to live her life truthfully in contrast with her father's life choices. Bechdel highlights especially that there is something wrong if you have to feel ashamed of how you identify sexually.
I agree with Bechdel that sexual shame is something that isn't right. We live in a society in which people will judge you on every single aspect of you, and if they find something that isn't "normal" about you, they will ostracize you for it. This isn't fair. We should create a society in which everything is okay. Nobody should have to be ashamed of who they are just because other people don't like it about you.
I agree that there is a lot of shame in the book. In fact, shame is kind of what moves the story. The reason the characters act the way they do is because they've been shamed enough to deny themselves and conform.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with your blog. There is a lot of shame in the book and this happens often in our lives as well. I think the problem is that we cannot control our shame. Society is generally oppressive and the trend is often to conform to the trends the media portrays. Because of this, when one does not fit the trends portrayed, it is normal to feel ashamed.
ReplyDeleteThere is sexual shame in the book, and it is bad.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Note though that "We should create a society in which everything is okay" probably doesn't express what your really mean. If everything is ok, then it is also ok to shame people for being queer. (The Blog Prof is picky about the words we use - it comes with the territory.)
ReplyDeleteThere is no way to create an entirely new society that is welcoming considering everybody is allowed there own opinions, free will. The only way we could attempt to reach such a society is for the entire population to not even question another person's aspects, or just accept others as if it were second nature.
ReplyDeleteYOUA SAID: I agree with you Sam. I thought that her father was sexual ashame of who he was. But then maybe the reason why he was because even though he married Alison's mother, and then she discovered he had a relationship with his friend, he maybe wanted to be like everyone else. He probably was brought up about having an American dream.
ReplyDeleteTATY SAID: Bechdel does do a good job of pushing the fact that being who you are is important. I think among telling us about her fathers shame though she shows how she developed pride in who she is.
ReplyDeleteI am very much in agreement about society. Unfortunately, that seems impossible in its current state.
ReplyDeleteI like how Alison chose to live her life truthfully and not hide or be ashamed of her sexuality
ReplyDeleteI like how you explored the sexuality shame throughout the book. It wasn't something I picked up on initially.
ReplyDeleteIt is in the persons personality whether they want to live in the publics eye or keep to themselves.
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