Bechdel/Wallace

Culture concept

Passes the Bechdel/Wallace test's 3 rules: it must have (1) at least two females in it who (2) talk to each other about (3) something else than a man or men.

20
games
8
platforms

Alternate names: Bechdel's law, Bechdel rule, Bechdel test

The test was invented for movies, so in terms of video games it may not have as great impact in describing the games. But, the purpose of the test is to show and incredibly simple minimal standard for gender bias that an amazingly small number of works fail to meet; so it has its uses. It is not exactly a reliable test of gender bias in general.

The third rule is as plain as it sounds, it doesn't matter what man or men they talk about, any man (a sibling, a parent, the president, their captor, etc.) for any reason is enough to disqualify them for passing this test. Also, all rules are connected (must be validated at the same time). Note also that the women are not required to avoid talking about males all the time. Lack of direct references to males should not be reason enough to consider the test passed as there are plenty of intentional double meanings and other ways to speak of them without outright saying so.

A stricter version of the test requires the females are named. In terms of video games this should only include named by something else than the interface or the game manual.

Limitations:
* Background characters should be ignored.
* Not dependent on player choosing to play as female (be it gender, character, or some other choice that affects this)
* Not dependent on the choice of followers in your group or similar (must happen regardless).

Possible limitation to include is the protagonist, so them being female does not automatically qualify for this simply when there's female NPCs in the game.

Popular tags

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Parent group

Genders

Games by year

990001020304050607080910111213141516 41230

The first Bechdel/Wallace video game was released on October 31, 1999.

Ubisoft, Atari and Monolith Productions published most of these games.

Related sites

Platforms

Windows 10
Linux 3
Mac OS X 2
GameCube 1
PS2 1
Xbox 1
PS3 1
X360 1

Most common companies