Alison Bechdel

Alison Bechdel‘s cult following for her early comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For grew wildly in response to her family memoirs, the best-selling graphic memoir Fun Home, adapted into a Tony Award-winning musical, and Are You My Mother? She has become a cultural household name for the concept of the Bechdel Test, a metric used when considering the representation of women in film. Bechdel has been named a MacArthur Fellow and Cartoonist Laureate of Vermont, among many other honors. On May 7, 2021, she talked to artist George McCalman about her latest book “The Secret to Superhuman Strength”.  It’s a history of exercise trends, from Jack LaLanne in the 1960s to spin classes and yoga studios.  It’s also a very personal examination of Bechdel’s own fascination with fitness.