Alison from Fun Home and Yitzhak from Hedwig and the Angry Inch come to recognize new potential in gender expression in two, touching frames, yet these fleeting moments are provoked and executed in entirely different ways. In both moments of recognition, Alison and Yitzhak encounter a person and an object, respectively, that open possibilities related to their gender. In the case of Yitzhak, he places a wig on his head and is engrossed by the touch of it upon his hands and neck. Yitzhak needs no mirror to validate the feelings of comfort and delight the wig brings him. He is prominently in the center of the shot surrounded in a familiar environment, overflowing with blonde wigs, providing an absurd yet personal touch. In the frame, there is a glint in his eye as he looks upwards that suggests a private elation upon touching the wig. The moment is distinctly Yitzhak in a sea of scenes as a background character. The wig …show more content…
Yitzhak performs and Alison ponders the possibilities. Through tactile means Zitzhak reaches a new understanding of self. Interestingly, Alison’s facial expression in the frame does not match her inner feelings of a “surge of joy” (118). We are explicitly told Alison’s emotional state, yet it is difficult exactly to pinpoint Zitzhak’s thoughts on the new wig/self. Alison’s mind is opened to the possibility of dressing outside of the norm, and Yitzhak’s eyes point to a level of comfort with selves that seem new and liberating.
An influential recognition in these scenes serves to display possibilities of new selves, but only for a brief moment for Alison and Yitzhak. In fact, both possibilities, wearing a blonde wig and breaking conventional gender appearance become reality later in Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Fun Home. Fundamentally, gender serves as the template through which both characters discover themselves in a new