{"id":31224,"date":"2012-05-09T15:00:11","date_gmt":"2012-05-09T19:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=31224"},"modified":"2012-05-09T13:47:17","modified_gmt":"2012-05-09T17:47:17","slug":"alison-bechdel-on-%e2%80%98are-you-my-mother%e2%80%99","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/09\/alison-bechdel-on-%e2%80%98are-you-my-mother%e2%80%99\/","title":{"rendered":"Family Matters: Alison Bechdel on \u2018Are You My Mother?\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Alison Bechdel\u2019s first graphic memoir, <\/a><\/em>Fun Home <\/em><\/a>, told the story of her small-town Pennsylvania childhood, which was dominated by her often tyrannical father. An obsessive home restorer and closeted homosexual, he died a possible suicide just as his college-age daughter was coming out as a lesbian. Six years after <\/em>Fun Home, Bechdel has published a second memoir in comics form, <\/a><\/em>Are You My Mother? <\/em><\/a>, but it\u2019s more than simply the maternal counterpart to its predecessor. Thrillingly discursive, it\u2019s framed by the artist\u2019s struggle to create <\/em>Fun Home and broker her mother\u2019s acceptance of its public unearthing of family secrets. Bechdel recounts episodes from her romantic relationships, her beginnings as the cartoonist of the long running <\/em>Dykes to Watch Out For<\/a> strip, and her struggles, through fruitful years of psychotherapy, to come to terms with her sometimes difficult relationship with her mother. (The book may be one of the truest accounts of what it\u2019s like to be on the therapist\u2019s couch today.) Throughout, Bechdel plumbs the life and writings of Donald Winnicott, the British psychoanalyst who pioneered the field of object relations and stressed the importance of early mother and child bonding. Over lunch at New York\u2019s Via Emilia, Bechdel confessed her childhood affection for \u201csilly children\u2019s comics like <\/em>Little Lulu and <\/em>Richie Rich,\u201d which shows in the clarity and warmth of her artwork.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Are You My Mother? <\/em>has a different emotional tone than Fun Home<\/em>, and it struck me that a lot of it is related to your use of color. Fun Home<\/em> is shaded turquoise, and the new book is dark red. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Initially I resisted using color in Fun Home<\/em> because my father was such a controlling color freak, and I wanted to prove that you could tell a complex visual story in black and white. But at some point I let go of that. It seemed that there was a lot of possibility using that second color, and I figured, Why let my father continue to control my life? It\u2019s still the two-color printing process in Are You My Mother?<\/em>, but the red is a spot color, and there\u2019s a gray ink-washed layer of shading that interacts with it in different ways, so there\u2019s actually a wide range of tones. I think that more nuanced coloring is part of this more complicated story.<\/p>\n

You also drew the panels using unusual vantage points\u2014from above, from below, through windows\u2014more frequently. Why?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In this book I was faced with these endless scenes of therapy, of two people sitting in chairs talking, which seemed like it would get visually boring really fast. This is kind of a cheap trick, but I started employing these tricky, comic-book angles, like low-angle shots looking down from the ceiling\u2014not randomly, but with some sense of their emotional impact. That made me interested in doing it in general, and as I became more confident I took more risks with those perspective shifts.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sometimes your text comments on what\u2019s going on in the accompanying panel, but often it tells a parallel story and the reader has to make the connection. How do you see text and imagery interacting?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was really worried with this book that those connections were not going to happen. Even now I\u2019ll pick it up and start reading and it seems like a series of non sequiturs. But my hope is that somehow these different strands cohere. I love comics because of that built-in disjunction between the words and the pictures, even when they\u2019re explicitly complementary and illustrating one another. I like pushing that space and being able to have two or three ideas going at once.<\/p>\n

Any given page might have a scene from your life today, a flashback to a scene from your childhood, and some commentary on Woolf or Winnicott.<\/strong><\/p>\n

My girlfriend found a page where there was me at four different ages. It jumps around crazily. That\u2019s something that comics can do.<\/p>\n

How did the idea for the cover come to you?
<\/strong><\/p>\n

The art guy said, Let\u2019s bookend the Fun Home<\/em> cover with a similar still life from your childhood home. My mother actually has this little statue of two women with their backs to one another on her dresser. It\u2019s such a funny metaphor for the two of us, looking away from each other.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s as though the reader of the book\u2014including your mother\u2014is asked the question of the title as they see themselves in the reflective panel of the mirror. <\/strong><\/p>\n

You know, honestly, I didn\u2019t even think of that. It\u2019s like that Time Magazine <\/em>cover, with \u201cyou\u201d as the person of the year. But I am very much putting the reader in the position of the analyst\u2014in the most pathetic way, I must add. So that\u2019s appropriate.<\/p>\n

Drawing a memoir demands a higher attention to detail than simply writing one\u2014rather than focusing on a conversation or interaction, as a writer might, you have to show what was on the TV in the background, what was on the kitchen counter. Do you remember these things? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I have a lot of family photographs, which are helpful for the details of our household. But with Google, I can find what was on television on Wednesday nights in the fall of 1970. Then all sorts of other memories and associations start to come back.<\/p>\n

Do you have a memory for facial expressions and what people said?<\/strong><\/p>\n

After I showed Fun Home<\/em> to my mother, she said, \u201cYou must have a pretty good memory\u201d\u2014sort of as an accusation, implying that I\u2019m making some of this stuff up. Of course I\u2019m making some of this stuff up. I don\u2019t remember these exact conversations. I don\u2019t have video footage of my life. But to me the books feel fairly accurate. Clearly everything is coming through my own interpretation. Everyone in my family had a different version of these stories, but I\u2019m not telling their stories.<\/p>\n

You write in the acknowledgments of Are You My Mother? <\/em>that you changed the names of your therapists. Did you draw them differently too? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I drew my current therapist, Carol, differently, just because that would have been problematic if any of her other patients recognized her. That would have disturbed their therapeutic frame. But Jocelyn does look like the actual woman. I didn\u2019t have many photographs to work from. That was mostly from memory.<\/p>\n

Did the publication of Fun Home<\/em> free other family members or friends of your family to discuss secrets about your family? Did you learn new things about your history? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Not right away, but slowly, over the years. Pieces of the puzzle have been provided by other people, which I\u2019m grateful for. All of our lives are mysteries to a certain extent. No one hands you your family history, and there are so many secrets. But you get clues here and there. I\u2019m starting to understand a little better my mother\u2019s perspective that not everyone needs to know everything.<\/p>\n

I took the idea that the personal is political very much to heart as a young person, perhaps a little too much, and it\u2019s guided me down this road of doing this not necessarily exhibitionistic but certainly very intimate work in a public space. It comes at a cost. My family is not happy about it. But it\u2019s sort of a strange loop. If I hadn\u2019t had that family I wouldn\u2019t have that need to publicly talk about all this. And I hear frequently from people that seeing one person take these family secrets head-on is very liberating. I know that sounds a little grandiose, but I think that\u2019s part of the appeal of the books.<\/p>\n

When you say your mother believes that not everyone has to know everything, do you mean outsiders don\u2019t need to know what happens within the family, or that people don\u2019t need to know their whole stories? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Both. There\u2019s so much she hasn\u2019t told me, and so many big obligatory questions that I didn\u2019t touch on in this book. Like, what has it been like for my mother to live with the pain of her husband\u2019s suicide? I can\u2019t ask her that. I can\u2019t even raise that question in the book, because that\u2019s too painful. So in a way the book is constructed around these big gaping absences.<\/p>\n

You quote Virginia Woolf\u2019s diaries, when she writes that after finishing To the Lighthouse<\/em>, her parents didn\u2019t obsess her in the same way. Do you feel similarly? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I definitely felt that with my father; I\u2019m still in the thick of this book about my mother, waiting to see her reaction to it, waiting to see what the critical response is\u2014all that seems to be part of the book distinct from the writing. I do feel that I\u2019ve silenced my internal critic to a large degree. It\u2019s still there but I\u2019m allowing myself to talk over it more and more, for better or for worse. A lot of the time I feel like I\u2019m just spewing bullshit, but at least I\u2019m speaking out loud. It\u2019s always very hard for me to say anything assertive. Now that I\u2019ve grappled with that part of my mother\u2019s influence and her preoccupation of my brain, I\u2019m better able to ignore her voice.<\/p>\n

What questions are you most frequently asked by interviewers and at readings? <\/strong><\/p>\n

The primary questions are inevitably, \u201cWhat did you family think?\u201d and \u201cWhat did your mother think?\u201d I\u2019d much rather talk about the writing and the ideas, but people are obsessed with their families. Even in functional families, which I\u2019m getting very interested in. Some families really work\u2014I want to learn about how that happens and what it looks like. But most people are oppressed in some way or other by their family\u2019s expectations, by their parents\u2019 psychological issues, by any number of things. And it holds us back, it limits who we can be in the world. We\u2019re so consumed with our personal problems that we\u2019re not doing more important things. I mean, who am I to talk? All I do is sit in my basement making notes about my therapy sessions. But I want us all to be autonomous and think for ourselves and do the things we\u2019re good at, and I think that\u2019s much more the exception than the rule for people. Not to mention living in a democracy that\u2019s functional. I mean, if we were all really doing those things, what would our world look like?<\/p>\n


All images excerpted from Are You My Mother?<\/em> by Alison Bechdel. Copyright \u00a9 2012 by Alison Bechdel. Used by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alison Bechdel\u2019s first graphic memoir, Fun Home , told the story of her small-town Pennsylvania childhood, which was dominated by her often tyrannical father. An obsessive home restorer and closeted homosexual, he died a possible suicide just as his college-age daughter was coming out as a lesbian. Six years after Fun Home, Bechdel has published […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[907],"tags":[7451,4091,35,131,7453,1465,7452,635,969],"class_list":["post-31224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-at-work","tag-alison-bechdel","tag-are-you-my-mother","tag-art","tag-comics","tag-donald-winnicott","tag-drawing","tag-fun-home","tag-memoir","tag-virginia-woolf"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFamily Matters: Alison Bechdel on \u2018Are You My Mother?\u2019 by Peter Terzian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"May 9, 2012 \u2013 Alison Bechdel\u2019s first graphic memoir, Fun Home , told the story of her small-town Pennsylvania childhood, which was dominated by her often tyrannical\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/09\/alison-bechdel-on-\u2018are-you-my-mother\u2019\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Family Matters: Alison Bechdel on \u2018Are You My Mother?\u2019 by Peter Terzian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"May 9, 2012 \u2013 Alison Bechdel\u2019s first graphic memoir, Fun Home , told the story of her small-town Pennsylvania childhood, which was dominated by her often tyrannical\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/09\/alison-bechdel-on-\u2018are-you-my-mother\u2019\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-05-09T19:00:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Bechdel_AYMM_127_hi-e1336578602615-704x1024.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"704\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter Terzian\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Peter Terzian\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"9 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/09\/alison-bechdel-on-%e2%80%98are-you-my-mother%e2%80%99\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/09\/alison-bechdel-on-%e2%80%98are-you-my-mother%e2%80%99\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Peter Terzian\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/38e2c8cf37ad24ed3b2d81f29a179d35\"},\"headline\":\"Family Matters: Alison Bechdel on \u2018Are You My Mother?\u2019\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-05-09T19:00:11+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/09\/alison-bechdel-on-%e2%80%98are-you-my-mother%e2%80%99\/\"},\"wordCount\":1843,\"commentCount\":10,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/09\/alison-bechdel-on-%e2%80%98are-you-my-mother%e2%80%99\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Bechdel_AYMM_127_hi-e1336578602615-704x1024.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Alison Bechdel\",\"Are You My Mother?\",\"art\",\"comics\",\"Donald Winnicott\",\"drawing\",\"Fun Home\",\"memoir\",\"Virginia Woolf\"],\"articleSection\":[\"At Work\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/09\/alison-bechdel-on-%e2%80%98are-you-my-mother%e2%80%99\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/09\/alison-bechdel-on-%e2%80%98are-you-my-mother%e2%80%99\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/09\/alison-bechdel-on-%e2%80%98are-you-my-mother%e2%80%99\/\",\"name\":\"Family Matters: Alison Bechdel on \u2018Are You My Mother?\u2019 by Peter Terzian\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/09\/alison-bechdel-on-%e2%80%98are-you-my-mother%e2%80%99\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/09\/alison-bechdel-on-%e2%80%98are-you-my-mother%e2%80%99\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Bechdel_AYMM_127_hi-e1336578602615-704x1024.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-05-09T19:00:11+00:00\",\"description\":\"May 9, 2012 \u2013 Alison Bechdel\u2019s first graphic memoir, Fun Home , told the story of her small-town Pennsylvania childhood, which was dominated by her often tyrannical\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/09\/alison-bechdel-on-%e2%80%98are-you-my-mother%e2%80%99\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/09\/alison-bechdel-on-%e2%80%98are-you-my-mother%e2%80%99\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/09\/alison-bechdel-on-%e2%80%98are-you-my-mother%e2%80%99\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Bechdel_AYMM_127_hi-e1336578602615.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Bechdel_AYMM_127_hi-e1336578602615.jpg\",\"width\":\"3064\",\"height\":\"4455\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/09\/alison-bechdel-on-%e2%80%98are-you-my-mother%e2%80%99\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Family Matters: Alison Bechdel on \u2018Are You My Mother?\u2019\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/38e2c8cf37ad24ed3b2d81f29a179d35\",\"name\":\"Peter Terzian\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/de01578fa073374cffd6fed8f581511bc8e7c303f7548ab77acaf89109800ec9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/de01578fa073374cffd6fed8f581511bc8e7c303f7548ab77acaf89109800ec9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Peter Terzian\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/pterzian\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Family Matters: Alison Bechdel on \u2018Are You My Mother?\u2019 by Peter Terzian","description":"May 9, 2012 \u2013 Alison Bechdel\u2019s first graphic memoir, Fun Home , told the story of her small-town Pennsylvania childhood, which was dominated by her often tyrannical","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/09\/alison-bechdel-on-\u2018are-you-my-mother\u2019\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Family Matters: Alison Bechdel on \u2018Are You My Mother?\u2019 by Peter Terzian","og_description":"May 9, 2012 \u2013 Alison Bechdel\u2019s first graphic memoir, Fun Home , told the story of her small-town Pennsylvania childhood, which was dominated by her often tyrannical","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/09\/alison-bechdel-on-\u2018are-you-my-mother\u2019\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2012-05-09T19:00:11+00:00","og_image":[{"width":704,"height":1024,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Bechdel_AYMM_127_hi-e1336578602615-704x1024.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Peter Terzian","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Peter Terzian","Est. reading time":"9 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/09\/alison-bechdel-on-%e2%80%98are-you-my-mother%e2%80%99\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/09\/alison-bechdel-on-%e2%80%98are-you-my-mother%e2%80%99\/"},"author":{"name":"Peter Terzian","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/38e2c8cf37ad24ed3b2d81f29a179d35"},"headline":"Family Matters: Alison Bechdel on \u2018Are You My Mother?\u2019","datePublished":"2012-05-09T19:00:11+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/09\/alison-bechdel-on-%e2%80%98are-you-my-mother%e2%80%99\/"},"wordCount":1843,"commentCount":10,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/09\/alison-bechdel-on-%e2%80%98are-you-my-mother%e2%80%99\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Bechdel_AYMM_127_hi-e1336578602615-704x1024.jpg","keywords":["Alison Bechdel","Are You My Mother?","art","comics","Donald Winnicott","drawing","Fun Home","memoir","Virginia Woolf"],"articleSection":["At Work"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/09\/alison-bechdel-on-%e2%80%98are-you-my-mother%e2%80%99\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/09\/alison-bechdel-on-%e2%80%98are-you-my-mother%e2%80%99\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/09\/alison-bechdel-on-%e2%80%98are-you-my-mother%e2%80%99\/","name":"Family Matters: Alison Bechdel on \u2018Are You My Mother?\u2019 by Peter Terzian","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/09\/alison-bechdel-on-%e2%80%98are-you-my-mother%e2%80%99\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/09\/alison-bechdel-on-%e2%80%98are-you-my-mother%e2%80%99\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Bechdel_AYMM_127_hi-e1336578602615-704x1024.jpg","datePublished":"2012-05-09T19:00:11+00:00","description":"May 9, 2012 \u2013 Alison Bechdel\u2019s first graphic memoir, Fun Home , told the story of her small-town Pennsylvania childhood, which was dominated by her often tyrannical","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/09\/alison-bechdel-on-%e2%80%98are-you-my-mother%e2%80%99\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/09\/alison-bechdel-on-%e2%80%98are-you-my-mother%e2%80%99\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/09\/alison-bechdel-on-%e2%80%98are-you-my-mother%e2%80%99\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Bechdel_AYMM_127_hi-e1336578602615.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Bechdel_AYMM_127_hi-e1336578602615.jpg","width":"3064","height":"4455"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/09\/alison-bechdel-on-%e2%80%98are-you-my-mother%e2%80%99\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Family Matters: Alison Bechdel on \u2018Are You My Mother?\u2019"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/38e2c8cf37ad24ed3b2d81f29a179d35","name":"Peter Terzian","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/de01578fa073374cffd6fed8f581511bc8e7c303f7548ab77acaf89109800ec9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/de01578fa073374cffd6fed8f581511bc8e7c303f7548ab77acaf89109800ec9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Peter Terzian"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/pterzian\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31224"}],"version-history":[{"count":42,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31291,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31224\/revisions\/31291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}