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Make it yourself, but cured. Most of our agents that are named after us are at the very least more violent than reality. I know that mine is more violent, thinner, messier, more coordinated, has a more interesting story of origin, and cooler gadgets. Not so much me as I want to be (except the thinner bit), but more my base exaggerated in the areas that make a more fun read as a PPC agent, if that makes sense.

Maybe it should read "two women have a conversation about something other than romance/sex"? If that was true, then those shock games you mentioned would probably pass. I don't know the games, but none of those guys sound like romantics.

If/when I ask for permission, I'm thinking that I'd like one of my agents to be a self-insert, but there's a problem with that that I'm not sure how to deal with. I currently have a rather disabling lung condition that severely limits my mobility and has reduced my stamina, so I'm having trouble thinking of how my agent-character would deal with said condition on missions (or really, even go on missions). I'd rather not write the self-insert as joining before I got sick, since that eliminates some of the personal growth and development I've gone through since I've been sick, but I'm not sure what else I could do. The only other thing I could think of was to have DoSAT come up with something that mitigated the condition to the point of being able to go on missions, with the explicit understanding that it would only be used for missions. I'm open to any and all ideas anyone else may have.

I haven't been on the board for a few weeks, so I missed this when it was first posted, but I'm located near Boston.

Or we'll be accused of misogyny again.

And, um, many virtual glomps to you for writing B5 missions. I don't know if I'd dare. (*glances down* Marcus? Really? I mean... Marcus? I think my brain just broke.)

If you like it, you like it. There's nothing that anyone can really do about that. And if it's a fanfiction, then it can't really be called on charges of plagiarism, if that was even something to worry about in the first place. Take Eragon for example: people dislike it for the purple prose. Most of the plot can be correlated to events in the star wars series, but I can honestly say that if the story wasn't so focused on Eragon and the writing was so floral, it might actually be a decent fantasy yarn, like a David Eddings book kind of thing.

... often fail both the female and male versions. My characters usually end up mostly conversing between men and women (and vice versa, I... guess?).

It's also worth noting that this may have less to do with who's allowed to talk, and more to do with the main/focus character. If your viewpoint (even third-person) is following a man around, an f-f conversation has to either break that viewpoint, or be passively observed (since if your male main character gets involved, that breaks the rule).

Of course, that does imply that there's a dearth of main female characters (and of course, I'm not saying this is the only factor). But it's not as simple as simple, I guess is my point.

hS

Technically, showgirls, red sonja, hellsing and black lagoon all pass the bechdel test, and none of them are exactly outstanding examples of gender equality. On the other hand, movies like the silence of the lambs and the lord of the rings movies(go and watch them again, I don't think there's any point where two women talk to each other) fail, but you can't say that movie is sexist. Spirited away passes, but all the women are servants, apart from the old witch-like characters. And I'm not even getting into games. System shock and bioshock? The characters spend most of their time talking to or about Jack/Subject delta/the Hacker. So it fails, but... SHODAN? Lansing? Tenenbaum? Lamb? All of them important female characters. Final fantasy X-2 passes, haha that's not sexist at all.

Scanning the front layer of my bookcase:
I don't think half of the discworld books pass, but you can't accuse terry pratchett of being a misogynistic pig. TWILIGHT, of all things, passes. My bloody Warhammer books pass, and the only women in the entire world seem to be incredibly rare or Sisters of Shallya. nearly all of the manga I own passes, and I dare you to say manga is usually gender-equal. V for vendetta fails. Batman passes. I can't even remember if Dune passes. I'd dig deeper, but I might get lost.

TL;DR while the test may help determine the gender equality of media, it is by no means a perfect reflection of the sexism inherent in said media.

I have a goodfic that I really love, but the thing is, it has some pretty overt homages to other movies and things the author likes. For instance, there's an arena scene that's pretty much the arena scene from Star Wars Episode II, right down to a line about the party being over and the bad guy getting away on a speeder thing.

Does this constitute plagiarism? Am I supporting plagiaraism be enjoying the fic? Please tell me, I'm very conflicted...

...where all the Hork-Bajir and humans started cheering together. In the books, we never really heard the perspective of any long-time controllers, but I can imagine a sort of camaraderie forming between the two enslaved species while they're locked up in the Yeerk pool.

I've only read the first two chapters, but I can actually imagine this happening, and not too implausably either. It makes quite an interesting topic for discussion, on a sort of post-apocalyptic hope sort of thing.

Someone either passes or fails. Tasmin was interested in knowing what happened if someone passed.

I'm thinking, though, that the criteria for passing should have been phrased differently: "and not every conversation is about a woman". Then failing the test is another charge on the list (cause then every conversation is about the Sue).

'Twas more of an ironic tone than a bitter one.

...well, not -that- bitter, anyway. This world damages us all, we don't need to heap the abuse on each other as well.

Cali ran around another corner, this time knocking another agent into a cache of water balloons. He took one look at the spluttering, wet agent struggling to regain her footing, and motioned Hannah to join him in running away. He ducked through a door into a water warzone. Tables were overturned protecting various groups of agents, urple-the nurses had told him the name of the awful color-paint splatters covered most surfaces and agents, bits of colorful balloons and shredded trash bags littered the floor, and draped across the heat and air ducts was Kyle, sniping the groups below.

The action stopped for a moment as everyone stared at Cali. Then the moment passed and entire group targeted him. Hannah, apparently having a better survival instinct that Cali, had immediately dove behind the nearest table, still holding Castor. By the time Cali had managed to join them water and urple paint ran off him in rivulets to form a large urplish puddle.

Kevin was also huddled behind the table, which Cali realized was right next to the pipes that allowed Kyle to climb to the pipes above the room.

"That's it!" he shouted. "Cover me," he said to Hannah and Kevin. Hannah giggled pointing to his normally wildly spiky hair that was plastered to his head and dripping urple pain, but nodded. With a final giggle she pumped her water gun and scanned the room. Without an obvious target the individual fights had broken out again. Cali let his gun hang on its sling, and climbed up the piping to the duct work.

Marcus. Who then becomes the shiny Chosen One of the magical unicorn aliens.

Although admittedly pretty much all male first-person stories automatically fail, that still seems ludicrously broad for most works failing it. I guess it's so pervasive I haven't noticed in any particular instances.

political science where this kind of thing crops up as well. Consider the double standards imposed on female politicians ("cold bitch" vs. "weeping hysteric"), or the pressures on appearance.

One doesn't or shouldn't need an academic degree to take note of this stuff, of course.

I do solemnly swear to be less flamethrower-happy and more constructive-criticism-happy with any PPC piece or related fanwork I shall do in the future. I will try to help, and not hurt, and strive to be funny even for the authors of the fanfics I parody.

Thank you for the soapbox!

But the heavy handedness of chapter 2 turned me off too badly to keep reading.

I was angry at the time, and I spoke hastily as a result.