Does your comic pass the Bechdel Test?

[Sanz]

lets see if Los Esmeraldas passes

1. Have more than one female character... (preferably named, and have spoken lines) yuppers!!!
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) they sure do and fight!!! and one takes a bite out of the 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". oh yes!!! tons of threats!!
   Another bonus rule I like to add is: are there any women of color in your story? . you betcha!!

looks like it passes! my ladies are strong female characters who are independent and don't need a man lmao

[alaingrey]

Mine fails hugely 8'D

1. More than one female character:
   n-no. Not that I have planned. In fact... my 1 female character hasn't even shown up. There's been one woman in a background scene so far who doesn't say anything.

2. They talk to each other:
   nnnno. There's no one for her to talk to.

3. About something other than a man:
   The character mostly has interests in religion, so most her dialogue is about that. Or drugs. Or murder. But she also ends up talking about guys a lot because... with a cast of 4 main characters, and 3 being men... It can't be helped.

I might have to fix this, but at the same time, I think adding in another woman for the sake of having a woman would just make a token character situation. I'd rather have 1 fleshed out and interesting female character than 2 poor ones : S

But if anyone has advice... Please!

[joannekwan]

For Demon House, where a girl lives in a rental haunted by demons:
1. Yes, I have lots of females in this series.
2. Yes, they have plenty of interaction.
3. Yes, they talk about stuff other than guys.
and yes Tula and her best friend are poc.

For Erie Waters, where a guy on vacation gets tossed into the drama of a drowned man, a water witch, and her right-hand dog.
1. Yes, of the four characters, half are female xD
2. Yes, Jenny and Nelly talk a lot.
3. Yes, they talk about their relationship mostly.
well, Jenny's not really human, neither is Nelly, but Nelly's human form yes. I depict her with a slightly darker complexion, suggesting a mix of ethnicities, since Newfoundland dogs were supposedly bred from Portuguese working dogs and others.

For Heavy Horns, about the relationship between two guys
1. Yes, there are more than 1 in the story.
2. As of right now it hasn't happened yet.
3. Um... well two of them talk about family, but mostly about the men sooo strike on that lol.
Yes there will be poc women!

[AnnaLandin]

I might have to fix this, but at the same time, I think adding in another woman for the sake of having a woman would just make a token character situation. I'd rather have 1 fleshed out and interesting female character than 2 poor ones : S

A failure of the Bechdel-test doesn't mean you've written a bad story! It's a test that is mainly used to illustrate how rare it actually is, in general, for any story to have two named female characters who speak to each other about something other than a man - regardless of quality. There are terrible stories that pass the test, and there are great stories that don't.

It's just something that we as creators should be aware of; often, when creating a story, there is absolutely nothing stopping us from having more members of the cast be female - but an unconscious bias gets in the way. So many stories are exclusively - or mostly - about men that we become used to thinking of males as default and normal, when in fact that isn't the case.

So my advice is this; keep this test in mind going forward, and the next time you sit down to create a story, ask yourself "Why don't I make more of the cast female this time? What's stopping me?" - because the answer is probably going to be that nothing is stopping you.

[jmhenry]

Mine likely doesn't, but I really wasn't aiming to anyway. I just focus on making fun stories, everything else can fall where it may... BTW, Twilight and Bikini Carwash pass the Bechdel Test. It's completely silly...

[elixiadragmire]

Did you know garfric was nearly a woman? But when I did the Eren lore, they turned out male only or rather humuculus

[Stinahhh]

Four Quarters

1.) Have more than one female character (named+spoken lines)
Yes. Three so far and more to come.

2.) That talk to each other at some point in the story
Yes. Women always talk when they gather. Always.

3.) About something other than a man
Yes. First interraction included asking about a guy but it's more so that the MC could figure out what the heck was going on. Second time was sprinkled with sarcasm and attitude.

[gateofselidor]

1. I have three prominent female characters, all of whom are named and have spoken lines, along with various minor female characters, most of whom are not named, but have spoken lines.
   2 + 3. Two of them are in a relationship, and although they've obviously spoken, and definitely not about men, they haven't had as many scenes together as I would have liked. Now that they will both be in the same building (or at least town) for the rest of the story, they will have more opportunities to interact. There's a scene between two female characters going on at the moment. I'm not sure if it "passes" because there is a man mentioned, but he's more of an accessory to the overall topic.

As for the bonus, the cast is majority people of colour, and the women aren't exempt from that.

So for a comic with a male central character with a male love interest, I don't think it does too badly, and I do try to include a mix among the supporting characters.

[jordanthelass]

Does my comic Whose World count if there's hardly a plot? .. It's more of a gag a day thing.

1. Yep! Currently there are two! ^_^
2. Not yet, but they will in the near future! So, technically, yes!
3. There are no guys for them to talk about, so far. XD So, yes!

Does that mean I pass? ;w;

[Damatris]

Fallacy is a drama fantasy comic about people making a lot of bad decisions and then trying to patch their lives back together.

1. Have more than one female character...

Yup! A lot more, I think there are 7 named female characters, 1 unnamed guard and 1 unnamed fangirl who all have dialogue. Can't really count background character who are simply filler. And there will be a few more named ones who will be also talking further down the story. Out of the 7, 4 are so pivotal to the plot that the whole thing would crumble to dust without any chance of salvaging it if they were to be taken out.

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

Definitely. The plot would halt completely if this didn't happen. xD

3. ...About something other than a man

Yup yup, it would be strange if every conversation was centered around men. I admit a lot of conversations have been at least tangentially been about men (or rather their actions) but it's hard to avoid at this point as it's important to the plot. But dialogues do already pass the test and will continue to get more diverse.

are there any women of color in your story?

Yes. So far there is only one (some bg characters too but I still don't think those count as actual representation) but she is named (Nanna), has several lines and is/will be important to the plot. And as all characters haven't been introduced yet, there will be more.

[APM]

Team Trouble definitely won't pass this test (cause we don't have girls in the team, unfortunately...)

But with The Sky Travelers it may work well...

1. Yes.There's a lot of female characters with name, spoken lines and life story. My comic will work with four main protagonists: two male and two female characters.

2. Yes. At the moment I'm still working with the beginning of my comic, but of course that will have a lot of conversations (because most female characters in my comic have senior positions).

3. Yes. Two captains of the Imperial Navy and some Pirates (all females)... what do you think? (Who talks about men all the time? They have life!)

Bonus: At the moment no...but maybe. I'm still developing the characters.

[kristintipping7]

My comics are averaging a little better than 50/50. Zoie, White Rabbits, Scary, How to Human, and Outside pass. Evil Witch Allie doesn't pass at the moment, but it will in the next chapter. The ones that don't pass are The Duel (in which only one of the three characters is female), The Door (which only has one female character, because it only has one character), Inside (which has female characters, but no dialogue), The Woodsman (which has no female characters or dialogue), and Where Kitties Come From. (Which has no characters that are immediately identifiable as female. The cats could be any gender, relay.) It doesn't help that a lot of my comics have very few characters and/or no spoken dialogue.

[Ringarune]

My comic is called Star Pace

1. Yes, 3/5 of my main cast are female
2. Yes, all the time
3. Yup, my comic is about singing, so that topic comes up a lot
   Bonus: Not in my main cast, but yes in my supporting cast.

[Dozzer]

My series: The Middle Crowd

1. (multpile women) Yes, there is more than one
2. (Do they talk to each other) They do, although...
3. (About something other than a man). Naw. I will say, however, that my story is still very young, and it does centralize around my male protagonist Danny, so it's mostly about his interactions with other characters. I do plan to expand the other characters.
   Bonus (women of color): Yes, I do.

[KreativeConfusion]

Tipping Point is mystery action adventure about a young girl growing up and realizing the world isn't just good and evil.

Does it count if one of the characters is technically genderless but uses female pronouns? If not then I got a few more pages to go before I can pass the test.

[infectedbloodcomics]

The Green-Eyed Sniper passes the Bechdel test with flying colors! It's a sci-fi story centered around a small group of lesbians who mention the existence of a guy maybe twice in passing, and only because they absolutely have to (one of them is an assassin and she had him on her target list)

As for the bonus point, there are no women of color in my comic, but the characters belong to a despised species called A.I.M.S., so they know all too well what racism means. I could explain more, but it would be spoilers, alas.

[Thesleepypencil]

Ah the Bechdel test. I don't remember if i've ever needed to test my stories even as a kid. Mostly because i LOVE stories about girls. Lots of girls. I haven't really changed ha.

Lalita at the End of the universe definetly passes.

1. Have more than one female character..
Currently shown in comic i've introduced 4 of the many female characters.
Lalita the hero, her best friend Nina, the robot Captain, and Tofty the angry green alien have all shown up.
I also have the lesbian space pirate showing up soon, her entire crew cept for two are ladies (though they don't show up for a while after her), The human Kaylee, and a bunch of other aliens that come and go.

2. ...That talk to each other at some point in the story..
3. ...About something other than a man

lots of talk about space and plot and fighting and saving the universe type stuff.

are there any women of color in your story?
I'd be dissapointed in myself as a writer/storyteller if i didn't. So yes. Though as human characters go i have only three ladies.
Lalita the main character is mixed raced, her mother from India, her father's parents from malaysia
Nina's grandparents are from pakistan.

the rest of the female cast is pretty much alien.

[jacintawibowo]

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

Coolness! Regardless of the gender of the writer it can be done =)

what a strange conversation but ok i'll bite.

Really? This was a huge conversation back in the day! XD Also regarding ladies of color in your comic, I'm afraid "background characters" don't count on this test. They have to be essential ladies, so your yet to be featured lady will count =)

For my series No Future

double thumbsup!

I mean it WILL!

I remember Teb and her mum talking, but I couldn't remember for how long it was XD but yeah, it's awesome that we have cool characters to look forward to in your comic =)
ooh and an autistic character too! I always wanted to write one X)

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

Asian people are POC, so you're good!

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

I remember your story having plenty of ladies who talked on plenty of topics so I had no doubt for your story. Another webcomic artist friend of mine also had a mute girl character with an adult male care taker kind of story and struggled with the test and what counted as passing X)
And yes, I read the article where that was addressed! I wanted to refer to this as the short name for recognize-ability, since "Bechdel-Wallace" test is harder to remember and hasn't totally caught on yet. (I've confused people with the other term before X0)

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.

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

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

I know this could be joking, but it really isn't an essential test. That test is un-applicable to all-ages or lgbtq stories. You don't need to have two characters sleeping with each other to portray romance/a gay relationship.
Btw! There is a test for "POC people talking to other POC people about something other than a White person" though for the life of me I don't remember the name!

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

It's great that your comic passes the test! Your character's personalities like "willpower or attitude" don't determine the success of passing the test, though so don't worry about it X)

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!

Adaptions are always a hard thing. Though you don't have to totally follow your source material research. Another webcomic friend of mine (who writes and draws for Finding Maria) tackles a unique interpenetration of Maria Makiling (from the Philippines) and makes the mythical figure a small wild girl in the forest as opposed to her slender tall conventionally attractive depiction in common folklore. It's totally cool to get creative and challenge pre-existing myths =)

I might have to fix this, but at the same time, I think adding in another woman for the sake of having a woman would just make a token character situation. I'd rather have 1 fleshed out and interesting female character than 2 poor ones : S

Yep @AnnaLandin's summed up my disclaimer note up on the forum topic X)
Oh and don't think that to have more than one female character means sacrificing the quality of another female character. Just think of it as, "hey I'm adding another lady character!" and it's gonna be awesome =)

Mine likely doesn't, but I really wasn't aiming to anyway. I just focus on making fun stories, everything else can fall where it may... BTW, Twilight and Bikini Carwash pass the Bechdel Test. It's completely silly

Like I said in the forum topic, passing the test does not determine the quality of your story. What it does determine though, is the ratio between men and women characters in your story and how much they interact. @AnnaLandin mentioned in a reply to someone here that it's about the subconscious tendency for us to make predominately male characters in our story, resulting in minimal interaction with the ladies and not passing the test. It's a test to keep in mind, not to strictly follow as a way to make a good story.

Does that mean I pass? ;w;

When they do talk in the near future, then it'll pass! This stuff usually applies to long-from stories =)

Does it count if one of the characters is technically genderless but uses female pronouns? If not then I got a few more pages to go before I can pass the test.

I personally think it counts ; )

the rest of the female cast is pretty much alien

Cool beans!

[scythe]

If it does, I sincerely hope it was merely an accident of circumstance.

[nocuddletime]

These rules, after all, are certainly the mark of good story-telling.