Alison Bechdel: ‘The Bechdel test was a joke… I didn’t intend for it to become a real gauge’ | Alison Bechdel
Cartoonist Alison Bechdel, 62, is the author of three graphic memoirs, including Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, but she’s most widely known for cinema’s Bechdel test. To pass, a film has to feature at least two women – preferably named characters – talking to each other about something other than a man. The test originated in Dykes to Watch Out For (DTWOF), her landmark comic strip that launched in 1983 and ran for 25 years. DTWOF followed the politics and news of the times, providing a weekly lifeline for queer readers…