Outsiders: Alison Bechdel

Alison Bechdel (1960-present) is an American cartoonist and graphic memoirist best known for her groundbreaking comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For and her acclaimed graphic memoir Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic (2006).  Bechdel is also known for the "Bechdel Test," a measure of gender representation in fiction. In 2014, she was awarded a MacArthur "Genius" Grant for her contributions to literature and visual storytelling.

For Further Reading:

• Alison Bechdel | Biography, Comics, Books, & Facts | Britannica
• Cartoonist and Graphic Memoirist Alison Bechdel, 2014 MacArthur Fellow
• What is the Bechdel test? A shorthand for measuring representation in movies : NPR

This month we're talking about Outsiders -- women who marched to the beat of their own drum and rejected stereotypes about what women "should" be. They are aesthetic pioneers, norm-benders, and often the only woman in their field.

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Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hello from Wonder Media Network. I'm Jenny Kaplan and this
is Wamanica. This month, we're talking about outsiders, women who
march to the beat of their own drum and rejected
stereotypes about what women should be. Their aesthetic pioneers, norm benders,
and often one of the only women in their field.

(00:32):
Inside a small house in northern Vermont, there's a woman
who sits in a swivel chair, head down over her
drafting table. The floorboards under her feet are painted lime green.
She has a worn cover of Harriet the Spy hanging
above her desk, an homage to her childhood inspiration. The

(00:52):
room around her is flanked with Florida ceiling bookshelves. The
light from her desk lamp illuminates rows and rows of
hand drawn panels, tiny worlds inked to life by hand.
She's one of the most influential graphic memoirrists of our time,
but growing up she didn't feel powerful or visible. Please

(01:14):
meet Alison Bechtel. Alison was born in nineteen sixty in Lockhaven, Pennsylvania,
a small conservative town. Both of her parents were teachers
and her father a part time funeral director. Their house
was full of antiques and secrets. Growing up, Alison found
a specific fascination with drawing. It allowed her to escape

(01:37):
from a childhood that pushed her to the outskirts. She
did not conform to gender norms, cropping her hair short
and befriending her boy classmates. She attended high school in
a small rural town where the pressure to conform forced
Alison into a shell. But when she would get home,
it was holding her fountain pen that made her feel

(01:57):
the most like herself. Elison loved comic books, but none
of the stories she read or pictures she saw reflected
the internal tension that she was experiencing. She might not
have known who she was, but she knew what she
wanted to do. Alison hauled her confusion all the way
to Oberlin, Ohio, where she attended undergrad. On campus, she

(02:18):
felt like an outcast. She avoided her classmates, spending the
majority of her time at the college bookstore or curled
up in the back of movie theaters doing what she
did best, escaping into the stories of others. At the time,
she identified as asexual, apolitical, and asocial. But that Oberlin
bookstore was a turning point for Allison. This was the

(02:41):
point when Alison began identifying as a lesbian. In nineteen
eighty three, she launched a comic strip called Dykes to
Watch Out for, a bold, smart, unapologetically queer slice of
life that gave voice to a community the mainstream media ignored.
It ran for twenty five years, and tucked into one

(03:03):
of those early comic strips was a side joke that
would gain monumental traction. A test to see whether women
were meaningfully represented in movies. You might have heard of it,
the Bechdel Test. The test introduced a rule in order
to pass, a movie has to feature at least two
women who must have a conversation with one another about
a subject other than a man. The Bechdel test became

(03:25):
a feminist academic term taught across universities. It has gained
international recognition as a simple test for gender bias. In
two thousand and six, Alison published fun Home, a family
tragic comic, a graphic memoir that traced her coming out
alongside the death of her father, who passed away suddenly

(03:46):
after being outed as gay himself. Fun Home was raw, intimate,
and groundbreaking in its subject It wasn't just about wrestling
with queerness. It was about the quiet damage of secrets
and family mystery. The book became a Broadway musical in
twenty fifteen, winning five Tony Awards Best Musical, Best Actor,

(04:07):
Best Direction, Best Book, and Best Score. Since then, Bechtel
has continued creating her follow up memoir, Are You My Mother,
continued her lifelong project of turning the private into the public.
Allison's profound power comes from her vantage point observing, questioning,

(04:28):
drawing in the margins, from the margins, Alison Bechdel currently
lives in Bolton, Vermont with her partner. Through a lifetime
of self discovery, Alison has pepped the Fountain Pen and
Steady Crip, allowing her to make sense of the world
her world, one panel at a time. All month, we're
talking about Outsiders. For more information, find us on Facebook

(04:49):
and Instagram at Wamanica Podcast special thanks to Liz Kaplan,
my favorite sister and co creator. As always, will be
taking a break for the weekend. Talk to you on Monday.