Alison Bechdel's Fun Home, appropriately sub-titled 'A Family Tragicomic', is a graphic novel style autobiography that revolves around the story of her complicated relationship with her father, and the realization of her own homosexuality. It is complex, intelligent and insightful. The story develops through the interweaving of Bechdel's memories of her childhood and the realizations she is able to make in hindsight. Bechdel challenges the concepts of gender roles, sexual orientation, and most importantly fatherhood through her own stories so that they may take on a deeper meaning in the end. Ultimately the question she aims to answer is: why am I am who I am? Secondary to this inquiry are related questions: how does a closeted gay father affect his daughter’s future homosexuality? Growing up, Bechdel and her father both struggled with gender roles. Bechdel's refusal to grow her hair long and her reluctance to wear dresses, skirts, or jewelry were the opposite of her father's preference for the effeminate; gardening, decorating, wearing fine creams and colognes. On page 96 the author reveals that her older cousins called her “Butch”, a nickname that reflected her success at acting masculine. To her ‘Butch” was the “opposite of sissy… it was clear to me that my father was a big sissy” (page 97). As a child Bechdel was acutely aware of the breech in conventional gender roles that occurred between her and her father and she resented it, even stating on page 96 that "where he fell short [with masculine things], [she] stepped in".
Bechdel’s father attempted to force her into the traditional female role by making her wear dresses (although the dress that is illustrated on page 98 is labeled “the least girly dress in the store”), put barrettes in her hair, and decorate her room with flowered wall-paper (“But I HATE pink! I HATE flowers!” to which he replies