: Re: Does this scene fail the Bechdel test? My novel has approximately a dozen women in it, but they don’t tend to talk to each other. Most of them are separated geographically or philosophically

@Ann1701686

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First, the point of the Bechdel test is not to pass it but that so many works fail it. It is deliberately set as a low bar. All it takes is two women talking together about something other than men.

You said:

The setting includes different nations. I have one woman in Istanbul who manages to get her younger brother to stop the erroneous assassination of her husband. I have characters in Madrid, some in France and more than a few in the US. Some that are not geographically separated are on different sides of the law. Having lunch with each other would either be ironic or just weird. I have a pilot who flies from location to location, but when on the job, she stays with the jet. I have female drivers, but they don’t exactly stop for long as they are going somewhere rapidly.

It seems like the female pilot could do one of

Carry a female passenger.
Transfer a package to a female driver.
Talk to a female member of her crew.
Talk to a female airport traffic controller on the radio.

Some of those may not fit your story. It really depends on the size of the plane. The last one should work regardless. The first two work best with small planes. The third is for a larger plane.

So long as it's not a man, they could talk about almost anything.

The weather.
A women's football (soccer in the US) team.
A women's basketball team.
The package that is being transferred. Don't mention if the sender or recipient is a man in that conversation. It's OK if the reader knows that or will learn that so long as it is not mentioned by either woman in that conversation.
The flight schedule or other details of the aircraft's operation.
Flight control. Be careful to avoid talking about men. Talking about planes is fine, even if they happen to be piloted by men so long as it is not mentioned in the conversation.

When I say not to mention that people are men, it should not be obvious from context either. The Chippendales plane cannot be gender-neutralized. If one of the women is dating someone, it can only be gender-neutralized by making her date another woman. And one could argue that talking about even a lesbian relationship is a Bechdel fail, as talking about romantic relationships is a "feminine" thing to do.

Talking about a foreclosure is fine. But if the conversation also includes something interpreted as romance, then that will neutralize the scene from a Bechdel perspective. The scene should run from start to finish without going to romance. Also, they're there watching their sons compete, so that fails the Bechdel test (daughters would have been fine).

That said, you don't need every scene to pass the Bechdel test. The Bechdel test passes if a single scene goes from start to finish with two women talking together about something other than men.

The greater problem that I see here is the relative lack of agency of the single female character you mention affecting the plot. Why is the Istanbul woman getting her brother to stop her husband's assassination? Why doesn't she do it herself? Why not her sister? Making it the brother means that it is one man saving another man. If she did it herself or even with the help of a sister, then that would be a woman saving a man. Your female characters should be able to resolve their issues without going to a man for help. That's not part of the Bechdel test, but it is a more serious issue in my opinion.

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