Bechedels Use of Reversing Traditional Characteristics...

Social conventions placed on both men and women, have haunted the pages of society for decades. The belief that the ideal man allocates more of his time into the masculinity of hard labor than his appearance, while the ideal woman doesnt bother herself with work or anything that hasnt to do with dresses and entertaining, appears time and time again as the social â€Å"norm†. Members of our society use these â€Å"traditional† characteristics of gender, as an integral factor in assuming a persons sexual orientation. Alison Bechdel, in her graphic memoir Fun Home A Family Tragicomic, uses these same conventions to her advantage, yet reverses the roles society have given gender, giving the male characters more â€Å"feminine† qualities, and the women†¦show more content†¦The idea of losing, especially in war, is heavily associated with the idea of being weak. Since war is considered by society the most masculine thing that a man could do, in giving her f ather the role of the loser, and herself of the winner, Bechedel conveys a role reversal of traditional gender based values She appears to take the role of winning, associated with men, and assumes it, thus making herself seem more masculine than her father. Furthermore, in calling herself â€Å"butch† and her father a â€Å"Nelly†, Bechedel once again reverses the roles. Since the term butch gives the connotation of being masculine, strong, and very powerful, in contrasts â€Å"Nelly† gives the connotation of being both weak and fragile, by giving herself the title of butch and her father the one of Nelly, Bechedel conveys that these roles are not confined to just one of the gender. They can be interchangeable between the two. Lastly her statement about the random and unimportant things that her father uses around the house, shows a reversal in the ideals that are typically associated with women. Society says that women are the decorators of the house, and t hat during the decorating, put things in the house that they feel are necessary, yet to men are not. This enterchage provides a bit of humor to the novel, and shows that society can not place