The Perception Of Gender Norms In Alison And The Truck Driver

The encounter of Alison and the truck driver cracked Alison’s perception of gender norms and her social construct of gender. She was exposed to something that was foreign and strange to her, she was overjoyed that there was someone like her in the world, and she wasn’t alone anymore. This encounter also resonated with Alison’s father but instead of awe, he was fearful, which is seen when Alison says, “But the vision of the truck-driving bulldyke sustained me through the years… as perhaps it haunted my father” (pg. 119 Bechdel). In this paper, I argue that young Alison’s encounter with the truck driver was the initial display that her prior construct of gender was misconstrued as she was able to develop a new vision of herself based off of the …show more content…
117 Bechdel). This brief sentence shows that the sight of this masculine woman was shocking for young Alison, who comes from a small town that is sheltered from this type of diversity. This was something that she had never experienced before, she was mesmerized by this woman who defied any gender norms that Alison had been given, either from literature or her own family. Alison couldn’t pull her eyes away, in every frame her eyes are stuck on this woman even as she is being pulled away by her dad into the car, which makes it seem that her father wanted to take her away from the truck driver before she could develop any ideas (pg. 117-119 Bechdel). Young Alison’s entire life has involved her father doing her gender for her by pushing feminine qualities on to her, such as the barrettes, floral wallpaper, and girly dresses, against her wishes because of his social construct of the female gender, according to Lorber’s “The Social Construction of Gender”. However, when Alison was introduced to a woman who didn’t conform to those gender norms, she was bewitched, which is shown in her face, especially in the top frame of page 118 in Fun Home. Meanwhile, her father had a different expression towards the truck driver, which can be seen in the same frame, because she defied his social construct of the female gender (pg. 118 …show more content…
Her father was also altered by this encounter, he felt his own masculinity being threatened by seeing that he was not as masculine as this truck driver was and she wasn’t even a man. Sitting in the same situation, Alison and her father experienced two different, but parallel viewings of the encounter with the truck driver who defied their ideas of gender norms. Young Alison and the truck driver shared a connection over their similar construct of gender and that would stay with Alison as she continued to explore her own sexuality and gender