In Fun Home it is interesting to see a role reversal of the male and female characters. There are a lot of elements in this story that go against the geneder roles that are always prevalent in typical social and familial settings. Even before the father is discovered, by the reader to be gay, there are hints all throughout that make it easy to come to that conclusion early in. The father was the one who was absorbed in the “feminine” things and actions of the household, from dressing the children, decorating the house, etc. In the same breath however, he was also the handy man of the household. There was always this balance between the masculine and feminine traits within this one character but it’s the “feminine” that comes out the most. One scene in particular that caught my attention was when the children were told they could not comment on their father’s appearance, good or bad, by their mother because he could go off at any moment for any reason. Now typically I feel that it is the woman who is portrayed as the sensitive creature, who blows up when she feels she may possibly be being judged physically. However, in this case the roles are reversed with the mother always seeming to be the level headed, emotionally detached one and the father being the exact opposite.

           

Despite this role reversal later on the book when the protagonist provides insight on her parents marriage in the beginning we see the roles in a more traditional way, albeit still a little twisted. When the mother finds out that her husband is in fact gay she attempts to leave him. This is an expected reaction, however, the father, who constantly calls the wife out of her name, essentially scares her into staying and she does, as we can see in the book. I think this is a huge example of how the mother takes on the stereotypical role of being controlled by the man and almost not being allowed to leave him. It’s an extremely unfortunate situation as she is now forced into an unhappy life where, as stated before, she takes on the emotionally detached “masculine” role.

While the protagonist and her father were both homosexual it was never really discussed between them. There was just always suspicion and even when she did confess to her father he seemed to take t very lightly. In her self-discovery process it was incredibly intriguing to see her read book after book, researching what she was. She was essentially trying to define herself through these books because she didn’t know who or what she was or how she was supposed to be. This is a definite reflection of the time this story was set in, when information was just becoming available about the lesbian and homosexual lifestyle but still wasn’t heavily discussed. There is a certain innocence exists around her journey and determination to define herself. I can only imagine what it feels like to not know who you are and not have a substantial support system to help you along the way