{"id":2895,"date":"2025-05-06T13:53:51","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T17:53:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/?p=2895"},"modified":"2025-05-06T13:53:51","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T17:53:51","slug":"fun-home-and-harsh-outdoors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/2025\/05\/06\/fun-home-and-harsh-outdoors\/","title":{"rendered":"Fun Home and Harsh Outdoors"},"content":{"rendered":"

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On page 17 of <\/span><\/span>Fun Home<\/em>, <\/span><\/span>Bechdel reflects on the appearance of her family. The page begins with the line \u201cHe appeared to be an ideal husband and father\u201d (Bechdel, 17). This line is followed by an image of her family in church, a public space, with her father looking down, dressed in a suit next to the rest of the family dressed in their Sunday best. However, despite the family\u2019s appearance of being well dressed, the dialogue box includes the question \u201cWould an ideal husband and father have sex with teenage boys\u201d (Bechdel, 17). This question leads to the statement \u201cIt\u2019s tempting to suggest, in retrospect, that our family was a sham\u201d which is then followed by the family have their photo taken outside their church while still in the church outfits. This scene draws out the need for normalcy through appearances. This is because the family is well dressed enough to appear \u201cnormal\u201d to be in a church service and to take family photos. <\/span>Additionally, in this public moment, the camera is focused on their family <\/span>symbolizing the way one moves from invisibility to hyper visibility. Society places a<\/span>n <\/span>invisible camera<\/span> on each<\/span> individual person<\/span> to make sure <\/span>they\u2019re<\/span> always behaving \u201cnormally\u201d<\/span> which can feel <\/span>exposing<\/span> for one if <\/span>facets<\/span> of their identity <\/span>don\u2019t<\/span> comply <\/span>with<\/span> what the camera wants. In Bechdel\u2019s family<\/span>, we see in the first drawing of the page the father is looking down, eyes appearing closed, while the mother look<\/span>s up, shoulders back and head held high. The contrast between the parent\u2019s body language <\/span>indicates<\/span> the mom, Helen, has a confidence in <\/span>the space <\/span>but,<\/span> Bruce\u2019s downturned expression hints at an un comfortability.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>However, this normal family unit particularly the sentiment of the father being an ideal husband and dad becomes complicated by the narration which questions if Bechdel\u2019s father would still be considered ideal for having sex with younger men. The location of the church relates to the idea of confession present by Foucault because Bruce in this situation is hiding the truth of his affairs and seems confined within the church and the photograph due to the weight of his inner self and familial duties.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On page 17 of Fun Home, Bechdel reflects on the appearance of her family. The page begins with the line \u201cHe appeared to be an ideal husband and father\u201d (Bechdel, 17). This line is followed by an image of her family in church, a public space, with her father looking down, dressed in a suit … Continue reading Fun Home and Harsh Outdoors<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5321,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[346812],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2025-class-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5321"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2895\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/everythinginbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}