In the general spirit of reviewing what fan-fictiony things I've done in the past few years
Bechdel test - and reverse Bechdel test.
I don’t think I’d heard of this before last year. This doesn’t mean the concept hasn’t occurred to me. Being female, though, and writing fiction for a fandom with a lot of strong female characters, I get more bothered about how I write all male scenes. I’ve seen plenty of examples of males interacting with each other - but apart from a few instances of being an involuntary eavesdropper; I don’t know for sure how men and boys interact in the absence of females. That hasn’t stopped me writing such scenes, but I’m conscious that I might be “doing it wrong”. There is perhaps an advantage to writing about male characters created by a male author - however they act in canon can be a reasonable guide for a female fanfiction author. So although I sometimes feel about writing a male POV or a conversation between two males and have on at least one occasion been saved by a kindly male friend from making more of an idiot of myself than usual, I still do it.
That said, have I been as fair to male and female characters as I think I have?
Bechdel test
1. Does it have at least two women in it?
2. Do they talk to each other?
3. About something other than a man?
Reverse Bechdel test (I don’t know if it’s got a proper name)
1. Does it have at least two men in it?
2. Do they talk to each other?
3. About something other than a woman?
Should be really simple to apply, right? And if I’m going to apply it to anything I should apply it to what I’ve written myself first. (Removing the plank from my own eye before looking at the speck in someone else’s eye, and so forth.)
And straightaway I had problems. Did girls count as women? Did boys count as men? I decided yes to both, provided the individuals were old enough for their gender to influence their behaviour or the behaviour of others towards them.
I had somehow been thinking that the whole of the conversation had to be free of any reference to anyone male - but that isn’t the same as “talk to each other about something other than a man.” So my criteria for that is that either I am looking at a whole conversation about something other than a man, or the that part of the conversation is about something other than a man, and this bit could be served up separately and still move the plot or character development forward - in other words the talk about something else cannot be just small talk before or after a conversation about a man.
I also decided that a conversation about a man meant a conversation about any man - even one not about relationships or where gender was unimportant. “Is that (male) customs officer going to let us through?” would not be a pass even though you could say the same about a female customs officer.
Does it count if a male is present and can hear the conversation? I don’t see why not. He can even be part of the conversation at times perhaps - but the females still need to be talking to each other.
And the same rules are going to reply in reverse.
I excluded:
• Diaries - I had one female diarist and one male.
• Meta fiction that takes place entirely in the imagination and dreams of one character.
I also exclude Inevitable and A puzzle, since they lack dialogue and the content of Nancy’s letter is governed by her need to disguise the code. If you read dead Pile you will understand why I excluded that.
But I included letters in Letter and Amazons since they function as conversations.
So out of 16 eligible stories, only 5 were passes both ways round. This includes all 3 of my long (56 000 words +) stories and two of the medium length stories (12000 and 25000 words respectively).
Three stories were fails both ways round and they were about 3000 words or less and focusing on a male/ female relationship.
The other 8 stories passed the Bechdel test, but not in reverse. This included 5 short (less than 5000 words) stories, two short/medium stories, each about 11000 words and one long /medium story (about 28000 words).
So - I could try harder with my male characters. That said, the central 6 characters in Swallows and Amazons are 4 girls and 2 boys and I think I’ve also tended to focus a little more on the Amazons.
I don’t think I’d heard of this before last year. This doesn’t mean the concept hasn’t occurred to me. Being female, though, and writing fiction for a fandom with a lot of strong female characters, I get more bothered about how I write all male scenes. I’ve seen plenty of examples of males interacting with each other - but apart from a few instances of being an involuntary eavesdropper; I don’t know for sure how men and boys interact in the absence of females. That hasn’t stopped me writing such scenes, but I’m conscious that I might be “doing it wrong”. There is perhaps an advantage to writing about male characters created by a male author - however they act in canon can be a reasonable guide for a female fanfiction author. So although I sometimes feel about writing a male POV or a conversation between two males and have on at least one occasion been saved by a kindly male friend from making more of an idiot of myself than usual, I still do it.
That said, have I been as fair to male and female characters as I think I have?
Bechdel test
1. Does it have at least two women in it?
2. Do they talk to each other?
3. About something other than a man?
Reverse Bechdel test (I don’t know if it’s got a proper name)
1. Does it have at least two men in it?
2. Do they talk to each other?
3. About something other than a woman?
Should be really simple to apply, right? And if I’m going to apply it to anything I should apply it to what I’ve written myself first. (Removing the plank from my own eye before looking at the speck in someone else’s eye, and so forth.)
And straightaway I had problems. Did girls count as women? Did boys count as men? I decided yes to both, provided the individuals were old enough for their gender to influence their behaviour or the behaviour of others towards them.
I had somehow been thinking that the whole of the conversation had to be free of any reference to anyone male - but that isn’t the same as “talk to each other about something other than a man.” So my criteria for that is that either I am looking at a whole conversation about something other than a man, or the that part of the conversation is about something other than a man, and this bit could be served up separately and still move the plot or character development forward - in other words the talk about something else cannot be just small talk before or after a conversation about a man.
I also decided that a conversation about a man meant a conversation about any man - even one not about relationships or where gender was unimportant. “Is that (male) customs officer going to let us through?” would not be a pass even though you could say the same about a female customs officer.
Does it count if a male is present and can hear the conversation? I don’t see why not. He can even be part of the conversation at times perhaps - but the females still need to be talking to each other.
And the same rules are going to reply in reverse.
I excluded:
• Diaries - I had one female diarist and one male.
• Meta fiction that takes place entirely in the imagination and dreams of one character.
I also exclude Inevitable and A puzzle, since they lack dialogue and the content of Nancy’s letter is governed by her need to disguise the code. If you read dead Pile you will understand why I excluded that.
But I included letters in Letter and Amazons since they function as conversations.
So out of 16 eligible stories, only 5 were passes both ways round. This includes all 3 of my long (56 000 words +) stories and two of the medium length stories (12000 and 25000 words respectively).
Three stories were fails both ways round and they were about 3000 words or less and focusing on a male/ female relationship.
The other 8 stories passed the Bechdel test, but not in reverse. This included 5 short (less than 5000 words) stories, two short/medium stories, each about 11000 words and one long /medium story (about 28000 words).
So - I could try harder with my male characters. That said, the central 6 characters in Swallows and Amazons are 4 girls and 2 boys and I think I’ve also tended to focus a little more on the Amazons.