30 Days of Fanfic

[nostalgia_lj]

So I realised that if I do a few of these a day, I can get it done in a week and then I am less likely to forget about it. Shall I try that? Yes, I think I shall. Memez rok!1!

Comments

[wolfy_writing]

You write lots of womens. You just tend to write them in relation to the Doctor, which is basically the same way you write men, so it's reasonable.

[nostalgia_lj]

Yeah, that is true I suppose. I should point that out maybe when I do that question. I would write more womens if the Doctor was a woman, so clearly it is the BBC's fault.

[wolfy_writing]

Are you getting hung up on the Bechdel test aspect? Because it's not the be-all-end-all of judging feminism in fiction. You write lots of fic with River, Reinette, Amy, Donna, Martha, and other people making decisions, having a sexuality, and leading complex lives.

[nostalgia_lj]

Yah the test makes me feel like I am failing at life :(

[wolfy_writing]

Which is not the point of the test. It started out as a joking way to point out how Hollywood, an enormous industry employing thousands of writers and producing hundreds of movies every year, makes very little that involves women of any importance at all talking about things other than men (which is a legit criticism). A few people in fandom misconstrued it as "Every single work that doesn't include a scene of two women with names talking about something other than men fails". It was never meant to be "If you don't write work that meets this standard/you don't write enough work that meets this standard/some of this work doesn't meet this standard/you like writing scenes where women talk about men, you fail at life." That's not how it works at all. It's not aimed at you, and it's definitely not something that you, as an individual, are morally obligated to fix.

If you find yourself going "I want to see if I can write Bechdel-test-passing fic", then maybe you can try writing something where Amy and River have a "So, you're my

[nostalgia_lj]

*tries not to worry so much*

[wolfy_writing]

If I wrote extra fic that passed the Bechdel test so it averaged out between us, would that help?

[nostalgia_lj]

It might maybe.

[wolfy_writing]

I'll see if I can come up with something.