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Bechdel Test Comment Ficathon Episode II: The Sromance Strikes Back
Hello and welcome to the Bechdel Test Comment Ficathon Episode II: The Sromance Strikes Back.
Like my banner I made in five minutes in Microsoft Paint while at work? Yeah, I know you do.
That's right, ladies and gentlemen-who-love-ladies. The comment fic-a-thon devoted to the interactions between your favorite female characters is BACK (hopefully in an Original Trilogy, not a Prequel Trilogy kind of way).
The title comes, of course from the famous test for movies that says:
1. It has to have at least two women in it,
2. Who talk to each other,
3. About something besides a man
I'll be the first to admit that though I have lots of favorite fandoms that do pass this test, some of my other favorites often fail in this regard. But we are here to fix that!
THE PROCEDURE. READ IT.
PROMPT, WRITE, REVIEW, REPEAT
SPREAD THE NEWS LIKE MAD
FEEDBACK IS LOVE
1. Prompt format: [fandom] - [characters] - [prompt of any kind – lyric, single word, scenario, picture, song, whatever]
2. In the title line of your fic reply, indicate [fandom, characters, title, rating]
A NOTE. IT’S IMPORTANT.
I know that not every layout appeals to everyone or is easy for everyone to look at. I’ve changed mine for the duration of the ficathon in hopes that this will be easier to use than what I normally choose. My journal has one great superpower, however, and that superpower is: TITLE LINES. That’s right, I still have them. Title lines make ficathons vastly, vastly easier to use. So if you’re reading/scrolling through looking for prompts, feel free to stick ?format=light to the end of the url, if that makes it easier for you. But when you go to post your filled prompt/completed fic, please do it in my current layout so that you can include the information in number 2 above in the title line. This will make it much easier for people to find what they’re looking for and also much, much easier for someone to compile a master list if someone volunteers to do that at some point. Thank you!
THE RULES. READ THEM.
1. No boy characters are invited to this party. That's kind of the point. Boy authors on the other hand? More than welcome.
2. Any character who identifies as a lady is invited. For instance, Illyria from Angel the Series who is (as far as we can tell) a genderless being in a female body is a go, especially if you focus on the more female aspects of her existence in a female body; female-presenting robots (especially those played by female actresses) such as Cameron from Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles or Caprica Six from Battlestar Galactica count as ladies. Also, if they're questioning/genderqueer/etc. in canon, they can be included, such as Alistair from Huge; according to
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boosette: “Alistair has an XY set of chromosomes and a male actor, but they're fairly explicitly presented as being ambivalent toward that gender; later on, they experiment with alternate/female-coded presentation.”3. RPF is acceptable.
4. Please no gender!swaps of male characters (for instance, no female!Dean Winchester or female!Spock). I love genderswap more than just about anyone, but this isn’t the ficathon for that.
5. Male characters can be mentioned in passing if necessary, but the conversation CANNOT BE ABOUT THEM, even if it’s not about romance. For example, Say Kara and Sharon of Battlestar Galactica were planning a mission; they could mention that they'll need Lee to do this and Helo to do that, because the focus of the conversation is on the strategy session. On the other hand, we don't want Kara and Sharon sitting around talking about what a great pilot Lee is; even if romance doesn't enter into it at all, that's still a discussion about a man. Obviously this line can be a bit hazy; use your best judgment.
6. ALL FANDOMS WELCOME. Same with all female characters, no matter how insignificant.
7. Femslash is fine, though this isn’t primarily a shipping kind of ficathon. Differentiate between femslash prompts and platonic prompts with a slash symbol for femslash and a comma or ampersand for platonic stuff. If you don’t care, stick both in there! Like this: [BtVS - Buffy/Faith or Buffy, Faith - prompt] Or, you know, just say that you're cool with either. Like this: [BtVS - Buffy, Faith (either) - prompt] Writers, pay attention to what the prompter requests—if they don’t want the sexy stuff, don’t give it to them; if they do, try to deliver!
8. Crossovers are awesome, but the more canon-y prompts, the better.
9. AUs are fine.
10. You can link to us anywhere. Your journal? A community? Tumblr? Go for it!
11. Be nice to each other or Buffy and Kara and Sarah Connor and Rogue and Sydney Bristow and Zoe will all team up to kick your ass. Also, I'll delete your comment and ban you. Them's the breaks.
12. NO CHARACTER BASHING. I haven’t had a problem with this before, but I want to make sure it doesn’t happen. If a character hates another character canonically, it’s okay to mention that, but dwelling is usually not a good thing. And I don’t care how much you hate Martha/Bonnie/Jo/Dawn/Sansa, a lot of other people love her and have no desire to stumble across hate (and Rose/Caroline/Ellen/Willow/Dany DO NOT share your feelings of hatred, so keep that in mind. Well, Dark Willow might, but that’s another matter). This is another deletion/bannable offense.
13. Spoilers. There will probably be some. So avoid the fics for fandoms you're not all caught up on yet. Prompters can request no spoilers beyond a certain point—for example, if you haven’t seen this week’s episode of Vampire Diaries, it’s okay to request not to have any spoilers included. Or if, like me, you’ve only seen the first two seasons of Farscape, it’s okay to ask for canon up to that point only. If the writer wants to be especially kind (which I always recommend), you can indicate in the title line that the fic contains spoilers.
14. If a prompt is already filled, you’re more than welcome to write another fic for it.
15. If you have any questions, please do ask. I’m very nice, and I want people to be able to participate if they so wish.
BANNERS. USE THEM.
Banners, as they're accumulated, can be found here. You're free to use any you wish. You can also use the less-than-impressive one I made up at the top. But hopefully we'll have some better options soon.
In addition, any other banners from any fandom anyone wants to make (featuring two or more ladies from a given canon, please) are greatly appreciated. Link to them in the comments here, please.
[Instructions on using the banners for those of you who are not so technologically-savvy: You can hotlink to these banners. Copy/paste the following and then plug in the link to the banner where it says "URLOFIMAGEHERE." Pretty simple, really]
OR
do a nice simple text link like the one at the top of the page by copy/pasting the text below:
That should cover just about everything, but if I missed something, please do ask/comment below.
And...go!
[eta] Master List now up!
Re: questions/comments/concerns/etc.
Re: questions/comments/concerns/etc.
Re: questions/comments/concerns/etc.