Thought experiment

[james_davis_nicoll]

There are lots of books and films that fail the Bechdel test:

1: It has to have at least two women in it,
2: Who talk to each other,
3: About something besides a man.

As discussed in other LJs and blogs, partly this is because film and TV writers are discouraged from writing material that passes it. Girls have cooties and viewers are assumed to be male, so unless the women are interacting with a guy there's no possible reason to have them in a story [1].

I'm sure the relevent link will turn up in comments.

Imagine the mirror image of the Bechdel test: Books and movies that have

1: At least two men,
2: Who talk to each other,
3: About something besides a woman.

These are pretty common. What I was wondering is if an author set out to deliberately write something that failed the mirror Bechdel test [2], would the readers notice?


1: Leaving aside porn.

2: I have a feeling there are some Archie comics that fail this test (Ones where the only men are Reggie, Archie and Jughead and all they talk about is Veronica and Betty).

Comments

[fridgepunk.livejournal.com]

Seconding this - most Shojo is explictly designed to fail the Moe[1] Movie Measure, to the extent of containing heavy to industrial grade lesbianism.

[1] which is obviously the gender reversed Mo Movie Measure, and is not to be confused with the Moe Moe Movie Measure insert witty breast joke here.