Self-Bechdel
So I thought I'd submit my recent stories to the Bechdel Test. I excluded single-character stories and drabbles, because the test requires there being more than one character. :p For what it's worth, there seem to be about equal numbers of dude drabbles and girl drabbles.
The Bechdel Test:
1. Has two women in it who
2. Talk to each other
3. About something other than a man
Duck
Supernatural (Dean, Sam, Castiel)
1. FAIL: All male cast. Go no further.
The World's Biggest Snow Globe Emporium Is Haunted
Supernatural (Dean, Sam, Castiel)
1. PASS: Old ladies, a witch, and a waitress.
2. FAIL: The old ladies talk to each other about snow globes but it's not in the foreground.
Sexy, Sexy
Avengers (Jen/Jazinda)
1. PASS: All female cast.
2. PASS: See above.
3. PASS: It's a femslash striptease, so yeah. Pass.
C12H22O11 (Or, The Science of Candy)
Avengers (Carol, Wanda/Vision, Tony)
1. PASS: Wanda and Carol!
2. PASS: Yes definitely.
3. PASS: They talk about a man. They also talk about candy, the USAF motto, and the things we do for friends.
Grace Too
Supernatural (Dean/Castiel)
1. FAIL: Only one woman in the cast. Go no further.
To The River
Harry Potter (Snape, a bunch of OC gangsters)
1. FAIL: It's pretty much a man's world. Go no further.
Invictus
Supernatural (Sam/Ruby)
1. FAIL: Pretty much just Ruby. Go no further.
Imbrication
BtVS (Giles)
1. FAIL: One man band. I really could have done better with this. Go no further.
Love, Marriage, Dating, Children, Dating (Again)
1. PASS: Hermione, Ginny, Rose, the vampire neighbor and the babysitter.
2. PASS: Yes, definitely.
3. PASS: They talk about all kinds of things, though mostly baby Rose and the difficulties of finding a good babysitter.
Five Loves (Ab Uno Disce Omnes)
1. PASS: Buffy, Dawn, Willow.
2. PASS: Yes, definitely.
3. PASS: Buffy&Dawn ftw!
The result? 4/10 stories passed the Bechdel Test. Ouch! I need to stop writing all male casts. This was actually worse than I expected.
The bulk of the fails come from Supernatural fandom, where I've been writing a lot of Sam&Dean&Castiel - I've got some work to do in this area. I have a few longer stories in progress, so I'll treat them as an opportunity to feature more of SPN's fantastic female characters. I've also got some femslash (various fandoms) in the works.
If I test everything in my archive it gets a bit weird. On the whole, my HP stories pass, because I wrote a long story with plenty of female characters, het, and lots of shorter stories with female pov characters. Smallville is close to a complete fail, for two reasons: 1) I was writing Clark/Lex; 2) I was writing a lot of character studies with one or two characters. Avengers is a mixed bag. There's lots of Steve/Tony but there's also some gen stuff in there.
Overall, a big problem seems to be small cast stories. I'm not sure how to test those - is there a related test that might be applicable?
Alternate: http://schmevil.dreamwidth.org/216682.html.
The Bechdel Test:
1. Has two women in it who
2. Talk to each other
3. About something other than a man
Duck
Supernatural (Dean, Sam, Castiel)
1. FAIL: All male cast. Go no further.
The World's Biggest Snow Globe Emporium Is Haunted
Supernatural (Dean, Sam, Castiel)
1. PASS: Old ladies, a witch, and a waitress.
2. FAIL: The old ladies talk to each other about snow globes but it's not in the foreground.
Sexy, Sexy
Avengers (Jen/Jazinda)
1. PASS: All female cast.
2. PASS: See above.
3. PASS: It's a femslash striptease, so yeah. Pass.
C12H22O11 (Or, The Science of Candy)
Avengers (Carol, Wanda/Vision, Tony)
1. PASS: Wanda and Carol!
2. PASS: Yes definitely.
3. PASS: They talk about a man. They also talk about candy, the USAF motto, and the things we do for friends.
Grace Too
Supernatural (Dean/Castiel)
1. FAIL: Only one woman in the cast. Go no further.
To The River
Harry Potter (Snape, a bunch of OC gangsters)
1. FAIL: It's pretty much a man's world. Go no further.
Invictus
Supernatural (Sam/Ruby)
1. FAIL: Pretty much just Ruby. Go no further.
Imbrication
BtVS (Giles)
1. FAIL: One man band. I really could have done better with this. Go no further.
Love, Marriage, Dating, Children, Dating (Again)
1. PASS: Hermione, Ginny, Rose, the vampire neighbor and the babysitter.
2. PASS: Yes, definitely.
3. PASS: They talk about all kinds of things, though mostly baby Rose and the difficulties of finding a good babysitter.
Five Loves (Ab Uno Disce Omnes)
1. PASS: Buffy, Dawn, Willow.
2. PASS: Yes, definitely.
3. PASS: Buffy&Dawn ftw!
The result? 4/10 stories passed the Bechdel Test. Ouch! I need to stop writing all male casts. This was actually worse than I expected.
The bulk of the fails come from Supernatural fandom, where I've been writing a lot of Sam&Dean&Castiel - I've got some work to do in this area. I have a few longer stories in progress, so I'll treat them as an opportunity to feature more of SPN's fantastic female characters. I've also got some femslash (various fandoms) in the works.
If I test everything in my archive it gets a bit weird. On the whole, my HP stories pass, because I wrote a long story with plenty of female characters, het, and lots of shorter stories with female pov characters. Smallville is close to a complete fail, for two reasons: 1) I was writing Clark/Lex; 2) I was writing a lot of character studies with one or two characters. Avengers is a mixed bag. There's lots of Steve/Tony but there's also some gen stuff in there.
Overall, a big problem seems to be small cast stories. I'm not sure how to test those - is there a related test that might be applicable?
Alternate: http://schmevil.dreamwidth.org/216682.html.