Does your comic pass the Bechdel Test?

[yondoloki]

Ooh! This is interesting, I think I saw a Ted Talk about this once...

Okay, let's see how The Changeling's Sister holds up

The story is about Rose and her twin sister, who is kidnapped by a fairy and replaced by a doll. Rose is the only one who sees the difference, and the doll treats Rose horribly, until Rose one day has enough of it and goes searching for her real sister.

1. More than one female character?
Yes, I have about four and two more will be introduced later, all named, and they talk :3 Compared to the two guys in this story; it's a small cast.

2. ...That talk to each other at some point in the story...
Yes, Rose and Doll-Lily have a couple of conversations, and the servant girl talks to Rose.

3. ...About something other than a man
Yea... Rose and Doll-Lily do talk about something else, but one of their conversations starts out about a man but then changes into something else :S

Unfortunately there isn't any POC women, sorry... Unless green counts later on....

[azureXtwilight]

From my webcomic

The Seventh Re:Set | Tapas

1. Have more than one female character... (preferably named, and have spoken lines)

There are quite a lot of them, Mike, Miki, and also Jane.

1. ...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)

2. ...About something other than a man (preferably not a filler conversation, a talk that has substance to the story).

In here, mostly Jane scolding Mike because she sucks at kicking other people's butt

Are there any women of color in your story?

Definitely, yes. Maria, Drake's mother and Caitriona are women of hispanic descent. While Miki and Andini are both asian descent.

That's the one where it's not enough that women talk to each other, they must also have to sleep with each other.

Well, this page implies two girls who are in a relationship, so close enough?

[Emma]

My comic, Friends or Lovers?, is about Elena, a girl with kind of an ego, befriending a socially awkward guy, Dave.

1. Have more than one female character... (preferably named, and have spoken lines)

Yes! Around half the cast are girls.

1. ...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)

Yes! Elena and her best friend Sashja have a couple of scenes where they talk to each other. There are also two of Dave's classmates, Sienna and Hannah, who are close friends and have conversations sometimes (happens in the next chapter).

1. ...About something other than a man (preferably not a filler conversation, a talk that has substance to the story).

Uh... chapter 3 ends with an argument between Elena and Sashja, which is about Elena's attitude problems (which does root in how Elena treats a guy, Patrick, but it's not the main focus of the argument). So I guess yes and no (so far)?

Another bonus rule I like to add is: are there any women of color in your story?

Are asians considered WOC? If yes, Elena is half-asian.

[Rhombik]

I hadn't thought about this but BOOM, yes it does.

I wasn't thinking about the Bechdel Test when I was planning the characters (because I see it more as a tool for analysis rather than a rule to apply) but I have been thinking about quite hard about my characters' personalities and interests.

Mainly because it's an educational comic and the hope is that kids will read it.

I didn't just want to slap a pair of glasses on one girl and turn another girl into a tom boy. It doesn't really create any depth. And I also wanted to think about how gender expectations might short change the male characters too.

So I thought about my own students and how they act. Then I sketched out how the girls might look and their personalities began to develop. It's a simple, not very character driven comic, but I think there are some nice beats in it...

Here is Bechdel btw.

[JenniferBourne]

Mine does, though the male characters hog the spotlight. I should look into this.

[Marton]

I have extremely few female characters and none of them ever speak with each other. I don't have any characters of color either. I have a super racist comic, apperantly.

[lolinone]

My comic Subterranean is eventually going to have a whole bunch of characters, and a lot of them will be girls, and it'll only be natural for them to talk to each other. I hope to make chapters focusing on each of the important characters, and the conversations are definately going to be about other things than boys, they have bigger problems than that. Now when it comes to wether they are of colour or not I've never really given much thought to that before, and earlier I was also so lazy I would give everyone the exact same skin colour. Nowadays I try to conciously vary that more so having people of colour will be a pretty natural route to go.

[harrydarthes]

My comic gloryhöl passes the bechdel test. Two named girls discuss stuff that aren't a male character. Two pages about how band managing is hard when you don't like the music your band is playing.

But on the other hand, it's kinda objectifying so... I guess i'm the proof that the bechdel test is flawed. I like Bechdel, tho, she's a terrific artist.

[Luminosophy]

It's just a short with a sister and brother and the brother is the MC.

1. Have more than one female character... (preferably named, and have spoken lines)
Only one, with spoken lines and a name

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)
Only one so nope

3. ...About something other than a man
Most of the dialogue ends up focusing on the brother

Another bonus rule I like to add is: are there any women of color in your story?
I can't apply real world politics to a fantasy story. Concepts like "POC" simply don't exist in it. They have a radically different history and issues that concern them and in my mind in general it just plainly does a disservice to think of my story this way. Just like how in the real world, 'poc' is an incredibly American-centric term and not one I would ever use to describe aboriginal people of my homeland, the characters would never even remotely consider themselves this way.

Where do I get my shitlord badge? : -P

[jurinova]

My comic, Home is a Distant Wish, passes the Bechdel test but only barely. I have several female characters (including women of colour) with names and lines but they don't interract much with each other. At least not yet. I am about to introduce a few new ladies in the comic quite soon, though. However I am hoping that by the end my comic will at least pass the Mako Mori test. The women in my comic may not interract much with each other but I'm hoping that their individual storylines will make up for that.

I am painfully aware that my comic is quite male-dominated but my original plan included that I write two comics side by side each other. One focusing on this group of characters and one focusing on a group of soldies, who happened to be all women. I did not realize how time consuming one comic was, so I haven't even began to draw the other comic yet. But hopefully one day I can start that one too, because I do love writing women and I want to write stories about them.

[catluckey]

1. Have more than one female character... (preferably named, and have spoken lines)
Oh yeah! Delah, one of the main characters. Betha-busa, a antagonist, and even Nelly, who will appear later on in the story!

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)
Yep! Delah and Betha-busa.

3. ...About something other than a man
Definitely!

Another bonus rule I like to add is: are there any women of color in your story?
And ding...Delah!
Just in case, here's the story!

The Watchman | Tapas

[emmyengberts]

I don't have a comic, but a novel, but I don't think that matters much.

The novel Flowers and Keyboards is about two gamer girls falling in love.

1. Have more than one female character... (preferably named, and have spoken lines)
   Yep, both the main characters are female, and they're named and they talk a lot
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)
   Throughout mostly, yep.
3. ...About something other than a man (preferably not a filler conversation, a talk that has substance to the story).
   Videogame tactics are an important element in this story

Another bonus rule I like to add is: are there any women of color in your story?
Nope, but I'm only two chapters in, so that doesn't mean it won't happen in the future.

[eleviken]

I make the coming of age/adventure comic Chasing Little Lights! We're not too far into it yet, but I think it will pass as of now :>

1. Have more than one female character... (preferably named, and have spoken lines)
   Mhm! Roughly half of the cast are girls.

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)
   Yep! Kasen and Elena - two of the main characters - are roommates, so they sort of have to interact.

3. ...About something other than a man
   Yes! But they'll probably talk about guys in the future.

[thomasfallaeriksen]

Hard to say really. Probably not. And to be honest I don't care.
I usually just do what I think fits the story best regardless of all these things. A good story will always be a good story. But this is just my own opinion.

I don't think my main comic Squidology passes. One of the main characters looks very female but is really a holographic alien of a species who does not have genders. And every other female or female looking characters we see in the comic are just in the background.
And it is a completely silent comic so none of them ever talk to each other.

I also have this spin off series from Squidology called Al Khemet. This would probably not pass the test either. It has the same gender less alien in the main role, and it also has 7 other (more or less) biomechanical characters which are all female (there are no male characters in the story). They sometimes interact with each other, but this is also a completely silent "comic" (it's more like a series of illustrations really).

I have another story I'm writing right now that would probably pass. If a few conversations (about Earth and an old VW Beetle) between a woman and a female alien would count.

[jennula]

I've actually had this test in mind when making SPEJS, since I've made too many comics with men before:

1. Have more than one female character - Three out of four main characters are female/not men, and many of the secondaries are female if it doesn't matter.
2. ...That talk to each other at some point in the story Yeah, they talk to each other all the time!
3. ...About something other than a man yeah, they talk about their past, present and futures, and it's usually is about other things than men.
4. Are there any women of color in your story? Swagata Yadav is one of the main characters featured in Chapter 2 (and I think she'll be back in Chapter 4, still planning it), and she's a woman of color. Whenever there are humans around in the comic, I try to not only have white skin on them.

[zigmenthotep]

Well, in Slugworld all characters are technically hermaphrodites, only 1 character has ever been named, and there is literally no dialogue. So I'm pretty sure it fails by default.

[cleo_san]

Welp, I think Remember passes this test =)

1) Have more than one female character...

Check. Kim and Sabbath are my two female main characters - there are several other important female characters, too, like Atreyna the Guild Mistress of the Healing Guild and some others, yet to appear.

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

...yep =) In the first chapter already there is a campfire talk. And there will be more to come

3) ...About something other than a man

Yep XD Being on the run makes it hard to focus on something like men. Besides, Kim is more concerned with keeping Sabbath safe than dealing with men.

Bonus: Another bonus rule I like to add is: are there any women of color in your story?

Okay, nope @_@ The setting is some kind of medieval fantasy world with European setting, so... I didn't include them yet. It might be the case in future, but for now I want to focus on telling the main story and that would be a completely different story arc XD

Remember | Tapas

[GrimRose]

SpellBound

Is a fantasy story about a post war nation that is trying to repair it's ties with it's neighbors and train a small elite group of conjurers to become soldiers in case of another war.

1. Have more than one female character...

Yes with each chapter there is actually new characters introduced and not only are several of them women the main character, Alice (the character introduced at the end of ch 1, also in the series icon) is female too.

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

Yes, there are full on conversations between two different female characters.

1. ...About something other than a man

She talks to her mother, about personal issues and deep seeded family issues that are troubling her. She also has to talk to a few state and royal officials later in the story, due to an accident that occured to her and several other.

are there any women of color in your story?

Yes, Alice and her family.

So...

Do the characters in your webcomic pass the Bechdel test?

Yes!

[ar-ninetysix]

I'm gonna go through all my projects for this as nothing's published yet lol

Momma's Boy
1. Yup, two females in the main cast
2. So far, yeah
3. Not yet, but it is planned
4. Yeah, but they'll be introduced later

Star Pilot Kira
1. Yup. Again, two in the main cast
2. So far, yeah
3. So far, yup
4. Yup, pretty early on too

WD Undead
1. Yeah, once AGAIN, two in the main cast.
2. This is tricky as it's a planned to be a silent comic lol but yes
3. Again, silent comic, it's tricky but yes
4. I don't have the characters designed yet, but I'm planning on the main character being a POC woman

untitled project
1. Yeah
2. So far, yup
3. Not yet, it's planned
4. No designs yet, but it could happen

[kalrhungus]

this test sounds kinda dumb..