Fanfic Archive Adds Download Options

[indie]

Originally Posted by whitearrow

The Archive of Our Own (a fan-owned and run fanfic archive) had added downloadable options -- you can download any story as .html, .mobi, .pdf or .epub format.

This is great, I use to love this stuff at one point. I think a download option would have been amazing.

[cfrizz]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

I take it you've never heard of the Bechdel Test, a.k.a. the Mo Movie Measure, based on a comic strip by Alison Bechdel called The Rule.

In the comic, one character insists that she only watches movies that pass the test--
1) It has to have at least two women, who
2) speak to each other, about
3) something other than a man.

(She notes that the last movie she watched was Aliens... in which Ripley and Newt talk to each other about the monster.)

Some people apply the test to books or tv shows, with similarly disappointing results.

The point isn't which movies pass or don't pass. Passing is definitely not a sign of a feminist movie; not passing doesn't indicate misogyny. But the fact that few movies do pass, especially very few award-winning movies, says something about our society--it says "women's voices are irrelevant. You can include them if you want, but they're not *necessary*."

Counting characters, noting gender and race of people involved, is essential to understanding hidden oppressions and negations. We *notice* anything unusual, out of the "ordinary"--and because of that, tend to think they are better represented than is true. Tokenism is not representation, and the only way to get past it is to pay attention to numbers.

That doesn't mean instituting quotas, but it does mean acknowledging that we're getting a limited, filtered viewpoint. "White male" is not a neutral state for humanity; it's as biased as "Latina woman" or "queer Muslim;" it's just that the biases of the majority group are less obvious to other members of that group.

I've never heard of this test either EW, nor was I counting characters. I was more than half way through this book when it suddenly dawned on me, that I hadn't read any interactions with the numerous characters were with women. But once I did take notice the absence, I couldn't ignore it.

[Amalthia]

Originally Posted by cfrizz

I've never heard of this test either EW, nor was I counting characters. I was more than half way through this book when it suddenly dawned on me, that I hadn't read any interactions with the numerous characters were with women. But once I did take notice the absence, I couldn't ignore it.

Once I learned of this I also could not un-see it. Though I guess it's part of growing up and becoming more aware of the world around us.