Photo by Elena Seibert
If you’ve consumed pop culture over the past 40 years, you’ve probably heard of the Bechdel test, which measures how well women are represented in fiction. It originated in “Dykes to Watch Out For,” Alison Bechdel’s comic strip following a group of friends in an unnamed American city.
Bechdel moved to the Twin Cities in the early ’80s, first living in St. Paul and later South Minneapolis, where the strip found its footing. “I embarked on having recurrent characters,” she says.
“It was a challenging idea to create a whole world.” She credits the Twin Cities’ “established lesbian and gay subculture” with shaping her work. “I was definitely shaped politically by the activist culture in Powderhorn,” she says. “This engagement with neighbors, building a better community—it’s shaped how I think about the world, politics, and the future.”
Now living in Vermont with her wife, Holly, Bechdel has published the acclaimed graphic memoirs “Fun Home” and “Are You My Mother?” Her newest comic novel, “Spent,” published in 2025, reconnects with her earlier work. “Some of my old characters migrated to this new world where they’re friends who live in Vermont,” she says. “I had some fun with it.”
Bechdel also teaches at Yale University, calling it an “honor” to work with young people. “It feels like a privilege to have contact with people at this point in their lives when they’re really launching.”
