Does your comic pass the Bechdel Test?

[jacintawibowo]

Okay! So this is something I've been wondering about for a while. I know it's a somewhat old topic by now, but I'm curious! Do the characters in your webcomic pass the Bechdel test?
First, briefly introduce your comic and what it's about. For example, "Tales from the Well is an all-ages dark fairytale story about a Prince who falls down a Well and goes on creepy adventures."
Then check if your comic meets the following criteria. To pass the Bechdel test your story must:
1. Have more than one female character... (preferably named, and have spoken lines)
2. ...That talk to each other at some point in the story... (preferably hold a conversation as opposed to saying a single line to each other)
3. ...About something other than a man (preferably not a filler conversation, a talk that has substance to the story).
A sort of extra rule is that they talk for "5 minutes" but since that's hard to measure in comics, I'll file that under "holding a prominent conversation".
Another bonus rule I like to add is: are there any women of color in your story? Statistically, POC women are the rarest to be represented in fiction. Growing up I found it difficult finding characters to identify with. It's a statistic that affected the way I grew up and several other girls as well. So share your characters! =)

Please note: If a story doesn't pass the Bechdel Test that doesn't mean it's bad or anti-feminist. What the Bechdel Test deconstructs is the ratio between men and women in a story and why said women don't interact with each other. So don't take it the wrong way, and play nice! =)

[carloswebcomic]

Well, but does your comic pass the Carlos test?
That's the one where it's not enough that women talk to each other, they must also have to sleep with each other.

I'm still working toward that glorious day.

[zetina]

So, my comic Suck it!! is about a bunch of teens but I don't wanna talk what it's about that much. To start with, it's about the lead girl trying to get a loner dude to open up.
And so... IT CAN'T PASS. For now :'D The story right now is very concerned with the dude so ofc most conversations center around him.
Other than that tho
1. More than one female character? TOTALLY. They're all named B'D (i vary skin tones too, tho i'm not very comfortable with that yet, having come from a very white culture. it just doesn't occur to me, that's all xD)
2. They do talk! There are several characters doing a lot at once during later scenes so mostly lines there but one of the first longer conversations is two female friends talking abt why lead girl got into trouble.

I'm confident I can always pass Bechdel's where it has to >B)
comes from being a girl, probably lmao

[mariusthered]

what a strange conversation but ok i'll bite.

My Comic is tales from swipe city and yes it's more than has a pass in this test.
1. lots of female characters mums, teachers, scientists, ninja, thief school girls .
2. lots of times and i'm guessing more than the men do.
3. conversations about something other than a man? yep
woman of color? yes one as a background character and I have a doctor who is African american but she has not shown up in the story here on Tap just yet.

as for testing the ratio I would say males get the worst of the scale in mu comic, but it's not something that comes to mind when I'm writing I just use whom i need for the plot.

[Kura]

For my series No Future

1. Yes, many named female characters.
2. Yes, all the time.
3. Yup, they've had conversations not about a guy that were relevant to both plot and character development.

Bonus: Yes, several.

[SirHellsir]

1. Bite madness introduces a girl, a boy and a robot on the first chapter. A second girl appears on the second chapter. So... yes.
2. They inmediately meet face to face so this one is a given.
3. yes, but there aren't many important conversations in my comic at all until like the second volume when the story becomes more serious
   People of color, of course, I have white people, black people, green people, but I didn't include purple people because that looked just wrong (but yes, the first girl to appear isn't white, she's more like latin)

[elixiadragmire]

...nope XD

Teb and her mum Silvia talk but not for long. I actually mentally went over all the conversation in my head and theres all of F + M conversations, teb talking to garf, bowen and his mum, socha instructing her minions.

I mean it WILL! at some point, just not right now. As for People of colour I have a fair few in act 2 (one I'm excited to introduce she so serene and inspiring I love her) At the mo Hendriks wife Princess Isel and Sir Sebastian are my current POC. I also have a fair few others less represented types, a lad with mild aspergers/austism, an amputee,

[AngieVX]

My "Summerdays" series
1. Yes, and there will be more of them
2. Yes
3. Does fighting scene count? It's like "aggressive negotiations" according to a certain movie!
Bonus. Yes

[whovianandwriting]

That's not an essential test but just a way of labeling something non-homophobic lol
Then there could be a bisexual test. An interracial test etc

[Mharz]

Ooh interesting! Let's see.

The Angel with Black Wings is a slice-of-life fantasy drama story of a boy who can see Guardian Angels and befriended an Angel who has mysterious set of jet-black wings instead of white.

1. Have more than one female character...

Yas! The Angel with Black Wings and Silver (though Sil doesn't look that feminine)

2 That talk to each other at some point in the story...

Yas! More like arguing rather than talking.

3 ...About something other than a man

Ya-- wait... They were talking about Ray... (a boy) Not exactly the main topic (cus they were arguing about the Angel's rules) but he's involved. Oops...

Bonus: I don't think so. Most of the characters are Asian since I'm Asian and the setting is in an Asian country. Silver is the only one with an American-looking face.

[AnnaLandin]

Answering this as it currently stands, from the pages I've drawn (even if I haven't posted them all yet).

Does Grassblades pass the Bechdel-Wallace test?
1.) Have more than one female character (named+spoken lines)
Yes. Akane (who, uh, doesn't speak for story reasons), Chouko, Lady Watanabe, Kazue, handful of yet-to-be-revealed female characters.

2.) That talk to each other at some point in the story
Yes. The first thing Kazue does when she turns up is speak to Chouko, and the various other female characters do interact.

3.) About something other than a man
Yes. The first conversations between women in my story (Kazue-Chouko and Chouko-Lady Watanabe) concern things like meetings and duty and new missions.

Any PoC women?
Yes! There's Kazue for one (she's the one in the first panel on this page), though honestly, most of my cast are intended to be PoC, though some are less obviously so than others.

(Note: I'm calling it the Bechdel-Wallace test because that's what Alison Bechdel herself wants it to be called).

[mappypaint]

Let's see, U-Speed is about a 13-year old boy who will go into a school made by a giant automobile company after being homeschooled his entire life.

1) More than one female character? Yes. In a sport dominated by men, I have a few female characters.
2) Talk to each other at some point in the story? Yes, since they are in a motorsport ennvironment, they did talk and will do talk to each other at some point.
3) About something other than a man? Yes! One of the female racers was the best in her time, and she motivates the younger female drivers that they can be dominant. So it's not talk about a man but the sport of car racing.
bonus: women of color in your story? A comic about racing that has diversity in race. So yes, there are and there's more to come.

[SethJH]

From Greatness to Dust

1. There are more named female characters than male characters. The "real" protagonist is also female.
2. The female characters have plenty of conversational exchange, although in the uploaded story so far, it's mostly monologue and "nice to meet you" type conversation.
3. While there are key moments where they do discuss one of the main characters (a male), there is plenty of conversation about plot-important things unrelated to him. The "love" plot is secondary to the main plot.

The PoC character isn't technically applicable because my characters aren't Humans.

[carloswebcomic]

That's not an essential test but just a way of labeling something non-homophobic lol

I don't know about you, but watching girls going at it with each other seems pretty essential to me.

[whovianandwriting]

I'm not a watcher of that kind of stuff but all of my hetero friends say girl on girl is their favourite (I'm a boy btw).

[LordVincent]

Let's see... The Key to Reality has a female main character, and she talks to a woman in chapter 7... about hair lol. The little girl loves hair and braiding soooo
In chapter 6 I think we also have two little girls talking to each other, playing and then climbing up on a roof. Then telling a female teacher to basically go fuck herself. That should count as well.
The Key to Reality has two named female black characters and one smaller black male character who is seen in chapter 2.

Bloodroot is boyslove so the main characters are male... But there's still a black female character, and then an implied lesbian couple. These two of course talk to each other.
I have three female characters planned for future chapters that might end up getting their own entire sideseries to the comic.

In my comics the female characters are usually the ones with willpower and attitude though so I have no problem passing a test like this xD

[eagle1]

Warmage has:

1. Two named female lead characters: Mary Sue (black, larger woman) and Cassandra (Genetic construct Cheetah/human)
2. Who have numerous conversations.
3. Only some of which are about the male lead.

Eagle
(and if you haven't read any of Bechel's comics, you should)

[whydocowsfall]

My comic Polyphemus doesn't pass and I think about that a lot! I've tried to think of a way to make it pass but because it's based on already existing Greek mythology it just doesn't work with the plot no matter how hard I try. Thanks Homer! There's only one main female character and she hasn't appeared yet, but I want to do my best to represent her well and make up for the fact that she doesn't pass the Bechdel test. :')

The character I mentioned was going to be a POC until I read the source material a few more times and realised that she is constantly described as having fair skin... If it had only happened once I would have ignored it but almost every time she's mentioned it's brought up. :') Instead I'm having one of the upcoming male characters be POC (they basically swapped appearances) because I'm trying to make my comic racially diverse as well as fitting in the setting of Ancient Greece!

[rainbowolfe]

My comic is Destiny Awaits! It's a paranormal-action story set in the deep future where four people have been assigned with the job of saving the world. In one way or another.

1. Have more than one female character...
   Oh yeah, totally! The three main characters are female, and there's lots of female antagonists and side characters.
2. ...That talk to each other at some point in the story...
   Of course they do o3o There's so many, they've gotta interact
3. ...About something other than a man
   With the world facing impending doom, there are much more things to talk about besides men XD

And I even pass the bonus rule! Two of my protagonists, one of my antagonists, and a handful of background characters are all WOC. Only the protagonists have been revealed though o3o And that's Kayla and Tai.

[legendriders96]

Yep, both LR LoL and RoC do.

As our description says, it's a story about shamelessly rich people, where boys cry, girls are pervs, and everyone's unreasonably hot. XD

1. Have more than 1 female character?
   -Yep. Both mains are girls, 4 second mains are girls, a lot of villains are girls, and a whole lot of minor charas are girls. All named and a bunch of them with spoken lines.
2. Talk to each other at some point of the story?
   -All the time. And for longer than 5 minutes, I'm sure. XD
3. About something other than a man?
   -They rarely talk about men, to be honest. It's more likely to have guys talking about a girl. Convos go from casual chatting to very important things for the plot.
4. Bonus: Are there any women of colour?
   -There are, we have a lot of people of various nationalities. Besides, almost all of our demon charas have darker skin.

The stories might still be too young to prove that yet, but it's a fully developed storyline. XDD

I have to add, though, there shall be Yuri too.