"Of Ferrets, Rape and Pregnancy" - thoughts on my writing

[aldersprig]

jeriendhal posted this post last week in which is linked this "Home on the Strange Strip strip (NSFW!) about the two plots female characters are always involved in, Rape and Pregnancy."

My first thought was "Shit, Addergoole." Rape and Pregnancy is practically the THEME of Addergoole.

jeriendhal provided a list of commercially-available words against this test, throwing in The Bechdel Test for good measure.

So, I thought I'd do the same... just with 'verses more loosely.

Edited to add: Reverse Bechdel, per @Shutsumon


Addergoole

Significant Female Characters:
Shahin, Kailani, and sometimes Jamian (gender-swapping). Fifty-some others; it's a boarding school.

Without spoilers, rape and pregnancy abound.

Significant FMale Characters:
Conrad, Emrys, Ambrus, and sometimes Jamian, 50+ others.

Without spoilers, rape and pregnancy abound.

Bechdel Test: pass-ish. The main characters talk about boys a lot. But they also talk about other things, with other girls.

Reverse Bechdel Test: I thought, with effort, of a conversation 2 males had that didn't involve a woman! Emrys and Ardell discussing whether or not Emrys is going to let Ardell rape Yngvi.

Stranded World (LJ Link)
Significant Female Characters:
Autumn, Summer, and Spring. None have been raped, none have been pregnant.

Significant Male Characters:
Winter. Nominally, Tattercoats

Bechdel Test: Some stories pass, some fail due to a lack of two females to talk, or because they're all in one characters head.

Reverse Bechdel Test: fail flat-out. There is no story in this series that has two men in the same place at the same time, much less having a conversation.

Reiassan (LJ Link

Significant Female Characters:
Rin, a Healer. Neither raped nor pregnant. Not even kissed for most of the story.

Significant Male Characters:
Girey, a captive of war and former prince. Not even kissed for most of the story, neither pregnant nor raped

Bechdel Test: Mostly fail. There is one episode where Rin talks to another woman about the army, but for the most part it's Rin and Girey, male, talking about their societies.

Reverse Bechdel Test: Fail. The two times Girey talks to another male, it's about Rin.

Tir na Cali (LJ Link)
Significant Female/Male Characters:
Fish story - the narrator and the mermaid/none
Slave school - Debbie and Jill/Steve, Carl, (someone else)
Harem - Ursula / Stephen
Catpeople - Bay (mostly)
Cali-novel - Keva, Georgie, Keva's lady mother. / Patrick

Somehow none of the women are raped or pregnant. Steve in "harem" can't say he wasn't raped, and Bay in "Catpeople" will probably be bred.

Bechdel Test:
Harem fails, due to lack of other women. The rest pass.

Reverse Bechdel Test:
Harem mostly fails: Stephen only talks to other men about Ursula.
No men in Fish story. Slave School passes. Cali-novel passes.

Vas' World (LJ Link)
Significant Female Characters:
Becky, Malia, Suki.

Becky ends up pregnant. So fail.

Significant Male Characters:
Vas, Paz, Ezra, Andon.

Bechdel Test:
Pass. They're exploring a new world; most of their conversation is about the world.

Reverse Bechdel Test: Pass.

Dragons Next Door (LJ Link
Significant Female Characters:
Hrrm. The narrator and her young daughter.
Neither end up pregnant, and no-one would dare rape someone who's good friends with a dragon.

Significant Male Characters:
The narrator's husband and sons.

Bechdel Test: mostly fail. Since it's set in a family and the dragons are neuter, often the narrator is talking with a child (male) or a spouse (male), or a neighbor (neuter).

Reverse Bechdel Test: Fail

The Planners
Significant Female Characters:
Varies by Era. In some eras, we're all good, no-one gets raped or impregnated. But in the "anthropologist" sub-setting, rape and pregnancy abound.

Ditto Male characters

Bechdel Test: Pre-apoc pass, post-apoc & post-post apoc fail

Ditto Male characters.

Comments

[clare_dragonfly]

Hmm, while quite a few of the characters in the TV shows I watch have been pregnant, I can't think of any who have canonically been raped. There are several incidents that are very rape-like--certainly Elle's shooting is very like--but that's not quite the same, is it? Hmm.

I mostly seem to not write about the same characters, but none of the characters in Chatoyant College have been raped or pregnant; it passes Bechdel with flying covers and fails reverse Bechdel rather spectacularly (in part a side effect of having only female POV characters, but there is a bonus story in which two of the guys are talking about girls).

[aldersprig]

I can't actually remember a conversation two women have had in Addergoole that doesn't involve... well, Io and Ayla. They talk about themselves. :-)

[clare_dragonfly]

The ones on the field trip talk about shopping and the trip sometimes!

[aldersprig]

Yes, yes they do! and Babies!

[meridian_rose]

Thanks for the link to the comic. It's something that angers me a lot about onscreen female characters - their 'development' usually has to be them having a baby instead of the million things that male characters get to have happen to them for character development.

[aldersprig]

Hrrm. I'd never noticed it, honestly, before this comic. Now I'm going to spend more time paying attention to it.