Passing Bechdel

[owlmoose]

I posted earlier today about the Women of Dragon Age Challenge. Over on Tumblr, there's been a little bit of a discussion about the choice of the Bechdel Test as a criteria for submissions. I have some thoughts -- of course I have thoughts; any discussion of the Bechdel Test is like catnip to me -- but I didn't want to hijack the post advertising the challenge, so I've come over here to talk about it instead.

One of the things I love about this particular challenge is that it explicitly references Bechdel and requests that every story pass. I have said before, and continue to believe, that the Bechdel Test is not primarily about evaluating the quality or female-friendliness of any one particular work but about looking at larger patterns in media. But still, I do think it can be a really great tool to apply to our own writing, because it makes us really think about our choices. Which characters do we write about? What do they talk about? And why?

To use a Dragon Age example, let's say I decided to write a story about Aveline and Brennan, discussing a man they arrested and the crime he committed. Is that a conversation about a man, or is it a conversation about work? I would tend to say that it's the latter, which would allow it to be considered it a Bechdel pass, even if the criminal is the only thing they talk about. But let me take a step back and ask another question: does the criminal have to be a man? Is there some reason intrinsic to the story I'm telling? Or did I make him a man because we tend to think of male as the default? Did I pick a minor male NPC because he fit into the story better than any other NPC available, or was he just an easy choice? Could I have made the character a woman, or chosen a female NPC, without any fundamental change to the story? And if the answer is yes, then why not do it?

I'm not saying every story can or should pass the strictest version of the Bechdel Test, especially not short stories, and especially not in fanfic where we are limited by the characters presented to us in canon. But I appreciate that we can use this challenge, and others like it, as an opportunity to look at our work a little more critically.

Comments

[sarasa_cat]

Personally, I like this test.

I had to avert my eyes a bit while skimming the tumblr discussion because of DA2 examples but I have long felt that Bechdel is a bit too much of a sound bite. Yet, to be fair, it was originally a response to hollywood films and the vast majority of them fail Bechdel due to the horrid sexism in the movie industry. (Here's one list of Bechdel fails.)

Regarding what you say above, when I saw the women of DA challenge, the first thing I thought of writing is a mage female warden + Morrigan friendship to give more character development to Morrigan's DA:O arc. Such as story has so much potential for good discussion about religion and magic. Yet, while running through the kinds of conversations I could imagine Morrigan and a female mage warden having, I easily -- and naturally -- imagined Morrigan illustrating some of her points with examples that just happen to involve men. While that's a momentary fail of the Bechdel test, I still want to write it anyway but have the warden & Morrigan lampshade it:

Warden: "We are not here to talk about relationships that I have or have not had with other men."
Morrigan: "Nor am I. I merely mentioned it to illustrate how much power the Chantry has held over your life and the lives of others. Surely this bothers you?"

[zen_monk]

I think that your example would count as passing the Bechdel test since I do think the focus is work-related and not necessarily man-related, or even gender-related unless there was some remark about how unusual it is that there's a female criminal running around (as if there weren't any of them around Kirkwall). Then again in hindsight, if I were to think of a female criminal NPC, there really weren't many petty ones around; just the ones who seem to be in a position of control and influence, like Athenril and that crazy Elf lady with the fatal gas and Grace, so ehhhhh.

My impression of what the Bechdel Test is used for is to avoid having the film/art/dialogue be solely male-oriented and to provide dimension to female characters. However, I would still think that even if the dialogue isn't about men specifically, it would still run under the danger of being shallow.

[pseudo_tsuga]

Bechdel: Not Actually a Test is my favorite post on the subject because it restores more nuance to the conversation.