Bechdel test meme!

[lady_ganesh]

I have finished my holiday writing and feel pretty good about it all! I have not sent out any of my holiday mail, but it's a start dammit. Also, there are some new people, welcome aboard and don't be afraid to comment!

Thanks to everyone who sent me stuff, snowflakes and thoughts! I love you guys.

So as a thank you, and to celebrate my actually getting shit done, I'm doing the Bechdel test meme.

You give me:

1. Two women (in my fandoms plz)
2. And a prompt-- word, quote, song, whatever--

and I'll give you a drabble of them talking about something other than a man!*

If you are unsure of a fandom, just ask. Crossovers welcome!

* I have kept the original Bechdel language, but any character who is not a cisgender male can qualify. Alas, in my fandoms I think this probably means, er, Kanzeon. But I love Kanzeon and Kanzeon prompts are welcome, as well as anyone else I forgot about. EDIT to clarify: This is because I write too much about cis men, not because all non-cis-men are the same. As axelrod points out, the Bedchel test is about specifical problems in portrayals, and I'm messing with it a bit.

For those of you wondering about the rule, here's the original strip that started it all.

Comments

[inarticulate]

Yaone and Lirin, blue?

Also, this meme is amazing and makes me happy. ♥

[lady_ganesh]

Alas, none of my icons on this account pass the Bedchel test, lolz.

Lirin looked over Yaone's shoulder. "Whatcha doin'?"

"Working on a dye," Yaone said, as she carefully inspected the leaves. "They have to ferment, or they won't become the right color."

Lirin chewed on her lower lip. "I didn't realize alchemists dyed things too."

"This is a...special project." Yaone smiled. "I'm not just an alchemist, you know."

"Cool," Lirin said. "I'll be back later and see how it's going, okay?"

"That will be fine." Yaone carefully covered the vat again; the batch was almost ready. She smiled. Lirin desperately needed new pants and indigo would suit her perfectly.

[inarticulate]

dslkfn awwww ♥ That last line! Special project! ♥ ♥ ♥ I love this. :D

[lady_ganesh]

Thank you for asking for them! I was just thinking this morning of how underrated (IMO) Lirin is.

[axelrod]

Hmm, you're kinda doing that thing where trans men are 'men lite', bc you're including them with women and genderqueer people (and gay men are still men, too - supposed effeminacy != not-man). I mean, either you think they're men and treat them accordingly, or you don't. There can be another challenge for trans people/trans men in particular. After all, there are very different problems of representation for cis women (stereotyped roles, rare interaction between two women, defined by male characters) and for trans women (rampant transmisogyny omfg I don't know where to start) and for trans men (invisibility, except when talking about trans ppl at women's colleges and then trans men are talked about but not trans women, lawl).

Keep the Bechdel test for women characters, it doesn't do much to help correct for the misrepresentations and non-representations of other kinds of groups.

[lady_ganesh]

I was looking at this particular meme more as 'omfg all I write about is cis men, plz make me write something else'-- and wanted to put any trans/genderqueer characters in my fandom as 'not cis men,' because they're not. (If there are any trans men in my canons, I've forgotten them, unless you count Sandman, which I loved back in the day but have never written. Maybe I should just say Kanzeon counts for the purposes of this meme, even though se is not a man?)

I had thought of the Bedchel test as one of visibility, more than of sterotyping-- so many media don't even get to point one or two.

[axelrod]

As I understand it, the Bechdel test addresses the fact that in mainstream US movies there are plenty of female characters but they usually focus on men and rarely interact with each other. I am struggling to think of a transgender character on mainstream TV besides wasisface on L Word (crummy show, from what I hear not a great portrayal of a trans character). Highly visible trans characters in mainstream US movies include Brandon Teena (transgendered person as a victim*), and washerface from Transamerica (which from what I hear was problematic). Apparently there was a trans character on a House episode, but the portrayal was full of fail and I've been told that I *really* don't want to watch it. So that's why I see the Bechdel Test as addressing a different kind of issue. Plenty of female characters (and lots of issues with how they're portrayed - the Bechdel Test focuses on one of those); few trans characters, and where they do exist, there's problems besides whether they get to talk to other trans characters.

I think I wasn't clear on what the asterisk was referring to - the two characters could talk about anything or anyone besides a cis man (hence my complaint), or you would have any two characters who aren't cis men talking (well, sure, if there's a trans or otherwise queer character at all).

*This is one of those things where if there were lots of trans characters in lots of situations, it wouldn't be a big deal but when the only mainstream image of someone remotely like me in terms of transness is in a movie like *that*, well. Thankfuck for *By Hook or By Crook*; and it's things like this which make me wish I seemed likely to produce a novel with wide appeal (instead of something which would mainly interest people who like Sarah Kane and Severo Sarduy).

[lady_ganesh]

I may have watched that House episode-- there was a character with sekret undescended testicles, and that plotline was indeed stupid as fuck and you really don't want to watch it.

Yeah, that makes sense.

*I need to move that up on my Netflix queue. Oh, wait, I did, I just haven't sent a movie back since November....

[kyabetsu]

TMNT:

Lucindra & Lotus Blossom: Tracy Bonham — Mother Mother lyrics

[lady_ganesh]

I could not write Lotus Blossom if my mortal soul depended on it. Hang up and try again?

[kyabetsu]

But she's proto-karai with a clean slate. You can make up shit from whole cloth! LOL, no, it's cool. Check out my other post on LJ. Try that one.

[lady_ganesh]

You can have Karai + Lucindra if you want?

[lynndyre]

Kazuma and Wakaba, offensive capability?