Bechdel seems to use writing as a means of therapy and survival. In fact, many authors do, including the ones studied in this class. Ensler is actually able to physically help women survive through her creative genius. Her work and words empower women to stand up for themselves, and when oppressors are met with this resistance, a general decline in the oppression tends to follow; and it did; this was the story of Eve Ensler and how her work changed the female gender forever. This demonstrates a perfect example of something that may have originally been created simply for female expression, but ended up manifesting into something else entirely. Bechdel utilizes a similar strategy as she chronicles her life in her journal as Allison. I suspect the real Allison Bechdel uses the book itself in her own personal struggle with the ‘hand’ she was dealt.

            Allison begins a journal for pretty standard reasons. Eventually, it becomes more of a coping mechanism; a way for her to vent. She makes first mention of her period: “I encoded the word menstruation.” She wasn’t able to talk about it with her mother, so here she was; talk therapy via a journal. I think that Bechdel felt like she needed to write this book as part of her own coping mechanism. She needs to take her own personal experience and make sense of it all; and with that, she hoped to gain some form of closure in growing up in the home of a pedophile.