Bechdel Test

[Kate]

Included in the metadeta, I would love to add the option to ask whether or not the book passes the Bechdel Test (there are three rules: 1) it includes at least two women, 2)who have at least one conversation 3)about something other than a man or men).

So many books/movies/whatever Do Not do this, and I just want to make it easier to search this info.

Thanks for considering!

[Shayla]

I think that's a great idea.

[Scott]

Seriously?

[Andrea]

The Bechdel Test is harder to apply to books than to movies, unless it's a multiple POV book. If you have a male protagonist and a first or third person POV, chances are you will always fail the Bechdel Test.

I often fail the reverse Bechdel Test for this reason.

On the one hand I like the idea of having some way of discovering whether a book has rounded female characters. On the other hand, I suspect the results might be massively skewed for anything but multiple POV books.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

I can't imagine using any of the metadata anyway.

[Lobstergirl]

This seems like it would be better as a Listopia, than as metadata.

[Andrea]

You could say that the point of the Bechdel Test is to simply make you ask yourself why so many stories have a cast of fully rounded characters, and The Girl.

It's by no means an ultimate test of a good/bad movie or story. But it's a way of looking at the stories we're telling, and questioning that disparity.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Which seems to me to be an appropriate thing to include in one's review, if this is an issue of import to you.

[Mark]

Good news! Most of my fantasy books pass this test with flying colours. (That's the correct spelling by the way. I'm not American).

[Gerd]

The problem with the Bechdel test is that it's a highly flawed criteria, what if they only talk about clothes/shopping/celebrities/cooking...?

The test tells me nothing of the importance a female character has for/within the story or which attitude the author shows/has shown to her.

It has its value in making readers observe (gender) mechanics more closely, but it's by no means a good criteria, IMHO.