{"id":21248,"date":"2020-12-21T10:09:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-21T14:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=21248"},"modified":"2020-12-22T10:11:40","modified_gmt":"2020-12-22T14:11:40","slug":"helen-bechdel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/helen-bechdel\/","title":{"rendered":"Helen Bechdel: Alison’s Mother in Fun Home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Who is Helen Bechdel? What was her role in the book Fun Home<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Helen Bechdel is Alison Bechdel’s mother. In her book Fun Home<\/em>, Alison details how her mother stayed in the marriage with her father, despite knowing the truth about his sexuality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more about Helen Bechdel and her role in Fun Home<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Helen Bechdel: Alison Bechdel’s Mother<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Alison began to explore her sexuality in college.<\/strong> She checked out books from the library that discussed homosexuality and focused on the stories of lesbians. Her studies were both informational and erotic. She joined the gay union at her university and began dating her classmate, Joan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She came out as lesbian in a letter to her family. Helen Bechdel didn\u2019t respond well. She sent back letters explaining her disapproval and why she thought Alison was making a dangerous choice. Though she said that she could live with Alison\u2019s sexuality, her disappointment was clear, and Alison was shattered by the disapproval. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon after coming out, Alison Bechdel’s mother revealed that her father was having affairs with men. Alison felt as if she had gone from the hero in her own story to the side character in her father\u2019s drama. Though she hoped her coming out would allow her to distance herself from her family because of her unique identity, she was pulled back into their lives<\/strong> because of the realization that she and her father had an unspoken connection that linked them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her Parents\u2019 Marriage<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Alison\u2019s parents met during a collegiate production of The Taming of the Shrew<\/em>. <\/strong>Alison compares the problematic plot of Shakespeare\u2019s play to the reality of her parent\u2019s marriage. In The Taming of the Shrew<\/em>, Katherine\u2019s spirit is crushed by Petruchio. Later in their marriage, Helen Bechdel was crushed by her father\u2019s behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her father joined the Army after dropping out of his graduate program. While deployed, he began to fall in love with the work of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Inspired by the author\u2019s focus on sentimentality and extravagant language, he sent Helen Bechdel increasingly sentimental letters expressing his passionate love for her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, this passion quickly faded as their marriage began. <\/strong>Alison\u2019s parents almost never showed affection for one another. In fact, Alison only remembered two instances of any kind of intimacy between the two:<\/p>\n\n\n\n