McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Bechdel test observations
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
This is probably obvious to anyone with the cognitive capacity of a toasted teacake or higher, but it's been hitting me hard recently how very very much easier it is to pass the Bechdel test with a single female first-person POV character than with a male one.
Also, given a female homicide detective, I am torn between fretting that male murder victims prompt plotlines with an awful lot of that female character talking and thinking about that particular male character, but female murder victims continue to be harder to keep out of the metaphorical refrigerator. I may just go for one of each in the two volumes where this is an issue.
Quantus:
For those like me who hadnt heard of it, from wikipedia:
--- Quote ---The Bechdel test (also known as the Bechdel/Wallace test, the Bechdel rule, or Bechdel's law) is credited to Bechdel's friend Liz Wallace,[5] and appears in a 1985 strip entitled "The Rule".[6] One of the characters says that she only watches a movie if it satisfies the following requirements:
It has to have at least two women in it,
Who talk to each other,
About something other than a man. (Not limited to romantic relationships, for example two sisters talking about their father does not pass.)
--- End quote ---
Speaking to Testing methodology, Id discount your MC in any 1st POV situation. In 1st POV the MC is forced to be involved with more situations than their own character role would necessarily warrant on its own, since they are the stand-in for the Audience perspective, and so will have more opportunities to talk about various topic simply because they need to be said on-screen, sometimes even with a variant of the the "as you are probably aware" statement
LizW65:
Hasn't it been expanded to also exclude females who discuss plot points with each other? If so, I'm afraid my current characters would fail the test.
Sir Huron Stone:
... what is a Bechdel test?
(and no. I don't have the cognitive capacity of a toasted teacake. I have the capacity of an untoasted teacake. ;D)
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: Sir Huron Stone on June 27, 2012, 01:23:33 AM ---... what is a Bechdel test?
(and no. I don't have the cognitive capacity of a toasted teacake. I have the capacity of an untoasted teacake. ;D)
--- End quote ---
I'm sorry for leaving the definition out; Quantus helpfully provided in the second post.
I am also having a wurble about the Bechdel-Turing test, which is whether two people have a conversation that makes no mention at all of computers; most days in my real life fail that one.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version