On February 9th, 2026, Alison Bechdel, a famous American cartoonist and author, paid UVM students and faculty yet another incredible visit. Bechdel, originally known for her long-running comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For, is also critically acclaimed for her 2006 graphic memoir Fun Home. Fun Home was subsequently adapted into a musical that won a Tony Award in 2015. Bechdel is also widely known for originating the Bechdel-Wallace Test (commonly known as the Bechdel Test).

The Bechdel test is a measure of the representation of women in film, and questions whether works of fiction feature at least two women who have a conversation about something other than a man. The Test was introduced in a Dykes to Watch Out For strip, “The Rule,” when a character states that she refuses to watch a film that doesn’t follow the aforementioned criteria. Bechdel (and her friend Liz Wallace, for whom the test is partially named) said The Rule was originally written in good fun, but it caught traction in popular culture and emerged frequently in 21st-century discussions of gender inequality in Hollywood.

Bechdel’s lasting impact on readers centers around her critical analysis of real-world issues like female underrepresentation in fiction, issues that Alison herself grapples with and illuminates through her comics. Bechdel’s most recent publication, Spent, which she discussed at length during her lecture, frames an “Alison” and her wife as the main characters. Spent questions Alison’s own ability to be a ‘good’ progressive as a safe and privileged member of upper-class society, a matter that may be at the forefront of many Vermonters’ minds in the current political climate. Bechdel, Vermont’s third Cartoonist Laureate, currently lives and works in a home studio in Bolton, Vermont, but has resided in various locations across the state, including our very own city of Burlington.

Both Alison's physical proximity to Burlington and her works’ conceptual proximity to modern political issues made her reading a must-see event among UVM students and faculty. The Silver Maple Ballroom, made to seat 400, was almost full on the evening she arrived for the public talk, and more than 100 English majors attended the private, majors-only reception afterwards, to interact with Bechdel informally and learn from her in a more intimate setting.

Students in attendance described Alison as “phenomenal” and “very well spoken,” detailing not only that Bechdel was amazing but that the community that sprung up around her was self-reinforcing, and that it was inspiring to be surrounded by others who shared similar passions for art and civic reasoning.