Alison Bechdel, born in 1960 in a rural part of Pennsylvania, went on to establish herself as an acclaimed illustrator and memoirist. An outspoken lesbian, she created the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For in 1983, which would run for more than two decades. Later in 2006 she published the graphic novel Fun Home, a work that looked at her relationship with her father, who was secretly gay as well. The book was turned into a 2015 Broadway musical which won multiple Tony Awards. Bechdel has also created another graphic family novel, Are You My Mother?, and was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2014.
(Courtesy of Biography.com)
The Bechdel Test, originally presented in Bechdel's acclaimed comic series Dykes to Watch out For, has since made its way into pop culture. It is used to evaluate the characterization (or lack thereof) of the female characters in a film based on three criteria: (1) Are there at least two named female characters in the film? (2) At some point in the film do they have a conversation that- (3), -is not about a man?
The musical adaptation of Fun Home won 5 Tony Awards, including Best Musical.