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 no socially acceptable way to express himself besides through Alison. This idea can also be related to a jarring metaphor Bechdel uses at the beginning of the novel where she says Bruce "treated his furniture like children, and his children like furniture" (14). In the same way that Bruce ornately decorates their house according to his artistic desires, he attempts to accessorize Alison, using her as a canvas for his own feminine desires.
This isn't the first time that Bruce expresses himself through Alison though. Bruce has a pattern of projecting his own thoughts and longings onto other people. For example, a key factor in Alison's diminishing passion for English comes from her calls with her father where they discuss various books. During these calls, Bruce talks about his ideas 99% of the time while Alison just sits and listens, not being able to voice thoughts of her own. Eventually, Alison completely loses interest in English as she starts to feel that her passion isn't her own passion anymore, but rather her father's passion being projected onto her.
With Bruce living out his covetted feminine life through Alison, she was confined within the boundaires that her father set for her. However, after Bruce's death, Alison is freed from his constant influence and can finally express herself in the way that she truly wants.
I agree with you and I think that Bruce almost feels like he has no control over how he can really present himself. He can only present masculinely, so he feels like he has to control Alison because she is his only chance at feminine expression. I also think that he probably wishes she would just behave and present femininely, as it would be easier for her and also for him to watch. There's also a ton of internalized homophobia coming from his corner of the closet, so it makes sense why he would try to force gender norms on her.
ReplyDeleteWe could maybe extend this model of Bruce's surreptitious living through Alison to his decoration and renovation of the house itself, which Bechdel also suggests is a manifestation of repressed and sublimated desire. She frames his obsession with interior design and ornamental decor as not the most masculine hobby for a man in their community, and she depicts his obsessive control over every detail of the house's decor in terms that are quite similar to his obsessive control over whether or not her necklines match, or whether or not she has a barrette in her hair.
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