Due to the incredibly raw and honest nature of Alison Bechdel’s art and narrative, we’re given a complex understanding of her own thought process. Simultaneously, many of us are probably wondering why she decided to disclose such sensitive, personal information. The answer? Catharsis- Bechdel uses the art of comics to further digest, analyze, and release her emotions.
Although, even this explanation of the therapeutic nature of cartooning doesn’t really cut it. After all, why is it so important that she express her emotions through that? While I was pondering this question myself I remembered Alison describing her family of artists as a “mildly autistic colony.” Her gravitation to comics as a form of expression may be explained by alexithymia, which is experienced by around 55% of autistic people and is defined by difficulty identifying and describing one’s own emotions as well as others. Creating Fun Home must've been an incredibly introspective experience and helped her come to terms with things, which is probably also why she wanted to share her work with other people in the case they could also learn something about themselves through it. Likewise, it seemed like the distant, almost neglectful relationship she had with her parents only made things more difficult to process.
Although the inheritability of ASD isn’t fully understood yet, it’s common for multiple family members to be autistic (although the expression of autistic traits will vary from person to person of course). This difference in expression is not limited to families, it occurs throughout the spectrum. A common misconception is that the autism spectrum is linear when in fact it’s more like a pie chart made up of sliding scales, one person may very noticeably express a trait while another may barely express it at all. Two examples of variability within Alison’s family are special interests and OCD (which is often comorbid, also note: these traits are not exclusive to the autistic neurotype).
For Alison, she seems very fixated on masculine beauty aesthetics as well as art, all in all her interests seem pretty broad as far as I can tell. Alison did an interview with The Daily Beast in which she talks about her brother Christian saying “He cannot work. He stays at home working on his collections of diecast cars” (Teeman). In contrast to Alison, Christian’s special interest is much more specific and seems more intense as well.
In the same interview, Alison also notes that both she and her mother experienced OCD in their childhood. OCD is a disorder characterized by repetitive behaviors and rituals associated with anxiety. Alison herself describes these behaviors as a “self-soothing, autistic loop”, referring to the fact that repetitive behaviors aka stims are subconsciously used to relieve anxiety, as well as release intense, overwhelming emotions such as happiness and frustration and also to provide sensory stimulation. Repetitive behavior seems to be an autistic trait Alison expresses more intensely whereas her brother Christian experiences has a stronger special interest.
Furthermore, I feel like Alison’s realization that she and her family are autistic greatly affected her perspective and sense of self the same way her epiphantic moment of realizing she was a lesbian did. Alison’s response in her interview seems to highlight that her brother Christian is undiagnosed despite the major ways ASD affects his life. I interpreted this as likely being because of the stigma surrounding autism or simply the common, pervasive misconceptions surrounding it. Autism is seen as negative and autistic people are often demonized and seen as a burden. In reality, there are no negative traits associated with ASD, it’s the unwillingness to understand and be respectful of autistic people that’s the problem.
Coming from an autistic family myself and April being Autistic Acceptance Month, I thought it would be interesting to talk more about this, so I hope you learned something today!!
Also, if you'd like to learn more or relate to the two traits i mentioned and think you may be autistic, i'd recommend looking into it more. There are a lot of great videos by autistic YouTubers and other resources online. As far as official diagnosis goes, adults have to see a specialist and go through ~1/2 a day of testing (i know because both of my older brothers did it and i'm hoping to soon as well).
Works Cited
Teeman, Tim. https://www.thedailybeast.com/lesbian-desire-a-fathers-suicide-and-12-tony-noms-alison-bechdel-on-fun-home Note: Alison uses the term “Asperger’s” which is outdated and a eugenicist term coined by a Nazi so please don’t use it!
This is so interesting! I didn't know much about autism before but after you elaborated on how symptoms of autism are like a pie chart and people have different levels of symptoms it makes more sense. You mentioned how one of Alison's special interests is her obsession with masculine beauty aesthetics, I think one of Bruce's could be his interests with renovating the house and constantly fixing things. Great post Lauren!
ReplyDeleteI thought this was extremely interesting. This post has a lot of information about autism that I didn't know before reading, and it all ties in with the reading really well, which makes the book even more layered than I originally thought. It makes quite a lot of sense that looking back at her childhood she would have all these realizations through the lens of knowing they were people with autism because it seems like most of the book takes place at such a young time in her life that she either doesn't remember super well, or didn't understand at the time.
ReplyDeleteThis was so interesting to read. One thing you said that stuck out to me was that creating Fun Home would have been a way for Bechdel to help deal with and better understand her childhood. While reading, the thing that I kept thinking about was that I didn't feel like I should be reading this book. It just didn't feel like I was the target audience. Her story was so specific that I felt I couldn't relate well and the way it was written was so elaborate with countless references and metaphors, I felt like I wasn't smart enough to read it. This idea you've suggested helps me understand Bechdel's writing a little more and the book as a whole.
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