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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 1988)
A dyke for watching Alison Bechdel captures, with kindness and accuracy, not only her characters politics, but their haircuts, their gestures, their bumperstickers, the bean sprouts in their refrigerators children's book illustrators like Edward Gorey and Hilary Knight; Norman Rockwell's stylized or years Alison Bechdel drew only realism. pictures o f men: male generals in full “ O f course, they’re all men,” she says with a military regalia, burly lumberjacks with knee- rueful smile. high boots, bearded hippies, superheroes. She At first, Bechdel sketched single-panel car- displays a line drawing — the wiry technique toons with wry captions, then multi-panel strips sophisticated for a youngster, the subjects — with a large repertoire of characters. Now once again: male. "Dykes to Watch Out For,’ ’ which she draws in two installments per month, is more like a comic-strip serial, with recurring characters and a developing story line. A central figure is Mo, the slim, bespectacled, ” politically-correct-but-worried-about-it” “ These are bad guys,” she explains. lesbian whose haircut and manner bear a The sketches surprise her audience, which striking resemblance to her creator’s. Mo is as has come to hear about life on the drawing earnest and articulate as her human counterpart; boards o f the much-loved lesbian cartoonist. she is probably more neurotic. This is, after all. Alison Bechdel, whose “ A friend o f mine describes Mo as 'Every- “ Dykes to Watch Out For” live in the pages o f dyke,’ ” Bechdel says. Mo worries a lot — two paperback books and 20 women’s and gay about her friends, alx>ut her social life, about newspapers around the country. the perils o f the nuclear age. "Her anxiety taps To Bechdel. the childhixxl sketchbooks full into everyone’s anxiety.” o f male figures are no surprise — they just show The strips begin with a story; Bechdel says how well she learned the patriarchy’s lessons. she writes out the script first, then develops the “ I was drawing all these different kinds of pictures. Over the years, her drawing style has characters, and none o f them were women.” become more refined, more detailed, less she says. “ In this culture, men are neutral, men freehand than the early sketches. The stories are the standard. Women are viewed as the and dialogue continue to come from the rich ‘other.’ All this cultural misogyny translates resource o f lesbian life. into how little kids learn to draw.” "I use a lot o f stuff that’s just going on with In college, Bechdel’s imaginative sketches my friends. I write things down.” Bechdel says. took second place to academic art — pastel "I have a whole pile o f little scraps of paper, drawings with perfect three-point perspective; like Emily Dickinson.” intricate, abstract etchings. She came out as a It is these fragments o f “ real life” that make lesbian in her junior year, and she finally the strip both believable and funny — the thera learned to draw women — real, live women pist who wears dark socks with her Birken- who mtxlcled for her figure-drawing class. stocks, the “ lesbian urban professionals” in The first “ dyke to watch out for” sprung their $7(X) leather jackets, the mother who com from the margins of a letter to one o f Bechdel’s ments. ” 1 wish you girls would let your hair friends Five years ago. her first carUxin was grow." When lesbians laugh at Bechdel’s published in Womanews, a New York paper. In characters, they are laughing — gently — at it. a sleepy woman is sprawled in bed while themselves. another woman bounds into the nxnn, orange " I’m not a funny person in everyday life. juice held aloft. “ Twyla is appalled to learn that What’s funny is — I’m really obsessive about Irene is a morning person.” the caption reads. details and things. I think it’s the little ways I’m Much as Gary Trudeau did with IXx>neshury accurate about how things are. It's a special m the early ’70s. Bechdel’s cartoons chronicle brand o f humor that’s like a mirror— because not so much events but a culture’s ambience. what’s there is really hilarious.” She captures, with kindness and accuracy, not Even w ith the publication o f two cartoon only her characters' politics, but their haircuts, collections by Firebrand Books. “ Dykes to their gestures, their bumper stickers, the bean Watch Out For” still doesn't pay all the bills. sprouts in their refrigerators Her strips are Bechdel works part time on the production staff funny not because they exaggerate, but because o f a Minneapolis lesbian and gay newspaper. they observe us as we are Our laughter is the She would love to see the cartoons in alternative rueful laugh of recognition weekly papers alongside the offbeat humor of For artistic inspiration. Bechdel has drawn Lynda Barry and Matt Groening. from an eclectic range of sources MAD "M y goal is to show lesbians in everyday, magazines, which she read avidly as a teenager; real-life situations," she savs. “ Not so straight B Y A N N D E E people will say, ’Oh, isn’t that cute; they’re just like us,’ but because lesbians have a lot to offer the world.” If putting women on the drawing board is a political act, then drawing lesbians is even more so. Bechdel makes lesbian life not only visible but highly accessible through the concise, punchy medium of cartoons. Still, the “ Mo” in her mind worries sometimes. Mo might wring her hands and say, "Here we are in the age of nuclear holocaust, and you’re drawing H Q C H M AN •So.OAftiCe .-WwOI Do yOU PLWTU TCtnt>J I F 1481 N .E . B rouriw ax P o r tla n d . OK 9 7 2 8 2 (508) 2H4-I I 10 M on.-Sat. 11-7 S u n d ay 12*5 We now have a free Gift Register! Rrnuu I M ' \\'(Vih’ • Tell your friends and family what you would like for the Holidays! • Friends! Don't guess this year about what to get fora gift Check our gift register and know you are purchasing a gift they will cherish! _ _ 1989 Calendars Available • Join ns Friday. Nov. 18 for an autographing and reading with Jan Clausen! jusi out • 10 • November I'JKH pictures!” Most o f the time, Alison Bechdel has an answer. " I’ve always been very guilty because I’m not a real political person,” she says. “ I’ve never done civil disobedience. I’m sort of finally getting to a point where I realize people have different ways that they do things. Not everyone is going to do civil disobedience. I’m starting to feel that doing cartoons is a legitimate outlet.” • you CHU\TU> on I HLR. while . SHE ^*5 ,— Of TPWW? J B ook b riefs obert Patrick, the dramatist-laureate of gay theater, has put together an assemblage of short plays titled Untold Decades: Seven comedies of gay romance (St. Martins). Each play, w ith different characters, takes place in each of the past seven decades in American gay history , beginning with the 1920s. Armistead Maupin said, "W'hen you read them in one sitting — and you will, believe me — these remarkable plays constitute nothing less than a comic history o f our tribe .” What the plays cry out for is a professional production in every city in this country. Several of Patrick's previous works have been success fully produced in Portland — people still talk of Storefront Actors’ Theatre’s electrifying production of Kennedy's Children in the late '70s, and of the independently produced T-Shirts a couple of years later. Gay theater in Portland seems to have become moribund with the passing of Jerry West. Is there not someone whose theatrical aspirations could fill this void? Persons interested in producing Robert Patrick’s plays can contact him c/o La Mama. 74-A East 4th St.. New York. NY 10003. R nwklyn. 1942 A hunky blond sailor who loves having sex with men is arrested in a male brothel. Military intelligence (yeah, that old oxymoron) and the FBI believe the brothel to be frequented by spies. The gullible hunk is coerced into working in the establishment until the spies are ferreted out. WHAT?? I PiDM’r (U£ i l , I WISH it WASWT. •'CH£AT"C»J no' AND U S ID C S . I o bleat or yoOR ßÜjlHESS?, P v t th is is A s * a u _ &m>JiTy, mu > like IT OR Not, OThCR PEOPLC 0 *J ir’> Jlisr Mor faia that KNOW WHATS Christopher Bram, author of Hold Tight (Donald I. Fine), said that a rumor led to his novel about male whores, spies, interracial love-hate and psychotic heterosexuals. We have little doubt that government types would be involved in such shenanigans and to even such disastrous ends. However. Bram’s breathless style diminishes a neglected chapter of history. A whiz-bang climax in a Time Square porno theater winds up Bram’s rambling epic without really tying up some o f the loose ends. ridges of Respect: Creating Support for Lesbian and Gay Youth , written by Katherine Whitlock and edited by Rachael Kamel (American Friends Service Committee), should prove invaluable to educators, healthcare and social-service providers, and youth advocates who are concerned with the harmful effects o f homophobia in our society. Bridges of Respect is a resource guide that will increase understanding and awareness of homophobia and its destructive impact on youth. The guide encourages youth workers to create services and programs that offer acceptance and sensitivity to lesbian and gay youth. With overt physical violence toward gays and lesbians increasing at an astounding rate, the need for institutionalized education against homophobia and its effects has reached the critical point. Bridges of Respect may be obtained from the publisher, American Friends Service Commit tee. 1501 Cherry St.. Philadelphia. PA 19102. — Jay Brown