Bruce Living His Life Through His Daughter
Throughout the graphic novel, Bruce can be seen forcing stereotypical feminine or "girly" qualities onto his daughter, Alison. This includes things like putting up a pink wallpaper with flowers in Alison's room despite her open distaste for it, as well as constantly making her wear a barrette as a kid. Bruce continues to pressure Alison to wear pretty, feminine things like skirts, dresses, and pearls even when she's already an adult. While Bruce's actions were probably not out of the ordinary given the time period that the story takes place in, a whole new meaning arises when we learn about how he was a closeted gay person himself. Given that Bruce reveals to Alison that he wanted to be a girl when he was younger, his actions can be seen as an effort to express and translate his own desires to be feminine onto his daughter. Although we see a snapshot of young Bruce in a women's bathing suit, he represses his feminine desires for the majority of his life with...