Last week I said I'd highlight our female and LGBTQ characters this week. Having taken a breath and thought about it, I've decided to split those into multiple posts. This week, following on the heels of International Women's Day, we'll celebrate some of the women in our fanfic. Then next week we can make LGBTQ the sole focus and give that topic the attention it deserves.
So, to kick off this post, have you heard of the Bechdel test?
Originally applied to movies, the Bechdel test requires that a work contain at least two female characters who have a conversation with each other, and the topic of that conversation isn't a man.
Warning for spoilers for the Caffrey Conversation stories.
The first story in the Caffrey Conversation AU fails that test. I'd made a conscious decision that since my story -- like White Collar -- was about Peter and Neal, I'd try to make sure each scene included at least one of them and was from either Peter's or Neal's point of view. Based on my initial experience with fanfic, I believed that approach was necessary in order for readers to embrace the my humble offering. In fact, it felt particularly daring to write a scene from Elizabeth's point of view.
In terms of featuring female characters, there are three things I'm proud of from that first entry in the Caffrey Conversation series. First, it included the debut of Tricia Wiese as the character who would become Peter's second-in-command. Having set the story before Diana joined the team, I wanted to make sure that the team had a female agent, and thus Tricia stepped onto the scene. Second, it isn't easy to find a role for Elizabeth in case-based fic, and I still made sure she had a presence in the story that made sense. Third, Ellen became part of the story from the beginning.
El has continued to make her presence known in the series, as have canon women June, Diana, and Sara. Kate has more scenes in our AU than in canon, although we've only hinted at Alex so far. I was pleased to introduce subtle changes to Ellen's story line, in the hopes of giving her a happier ending. We've filled in some of Sara's backstory, and given her an actual career trajectory. Lauren from season 1 is another character I hope we'll bring back into the fold even though, like Diana, we're technically ahead of when she joins the White Collar task force. Having given Diana her big splash intro, we've featured her girlfriend Christie, giving her more scenes than the character had in canon. Raquel was in only one episode, as I recall, and we liked her so much that she's been featured in both the main AU and in the Arkham Files branch of the series.
One of the first ways I introduced more women in the series was by giving Neal a family that wanted to connect with him. I'd daydreamed aspects of his family before writing the first story: they would be smart, creative, stubborn, playful, flawed, and loving. That gives us movie star grandmother Irene, psychologist/college professor aunt Noelle, and college student/musician cousin Angela. Mother Meredith remains cloaked in mystery in WITSEC, but we've seen glimpses of her and heard stories both from Neal's perspective and from her childhood. There's also Paige, the widow of Neal's uncle David Caffrey; Paige is an aeronautics engineer. Julia Winslow is something of an honorary grandmother to Neal, and is also a renowned data scientist.
Having given Neal an extended family we needed to fill in the blanks on Peter's family, too. Silbrith gave us Betty, Peter's mother who is a retired science teacher. I added Rosalind and Viola, Peter's nieces.
El's sister has been mentioned, and perhaps we can feature her someday. Noelle and El are now sisters-in-law and catch up frequently. We've tried to show that June's daughters and granddaughters are priorities in her life.
Another obvious way to add women to the cast was to place them in law enforcement and related organizations who would participate in cases. Thus, Hughes' wife Ilsa is a federal prosecutor, Carmen leads the ERT team, Marcy and Annina are U.S. Marshals, Yvette is a law student, and Helen is also an attorney. Those are in addition to Tricia and host of other women in the FBI.
With the music theme in Caffrey Disclosure, I made a point of making several of the musicians women, most notably Samantha and Cassie. That's also the story where we meet Yvette and Theresa, and where El's college roommate aids with the Masterson Music case. Women prove to be valuable allies for Neal in that case, including a reporter, a music professor, a DJ, a makeup artist, and a poker dealer in Las Vegas. We see how songwriter and producer Miranda Garza gave both Neal and Henry opportunities when they were sick and desperate. One of my goals in that story was to show women mentoring women. Therefore Ilsa Hughes offers law student Yvette Garza an internship opportunity, Agent Tricia Wiese takes Diana under her wing at the FBI, and June takes over Masterson Music where she works to right the wrongs suffered by Samantha, Cassie, and others. I don't recall if I explicitly mentioned it, but I thought Miranda would provide advice and encouragement to Angela.
Silbrith sent Neal to college, introducing female students and instructors, including Keiko, Fiona, and professor Myra Stockman. Maggie works at a shop near Columbia University and has become increasingly involved in the lives of Neal and his fellow students. The stories Silbrith writes features women in art, in academia, and as memorable villains. For instance, Anya has had a major story arc as the leader of criminal organization Ydrus, with support from Bianka and Marta. Silbrith also specializes in revealing information about Neal's past exploits in Europe. That's how Chantal joined the cast as the person who perfected Neal's safecracking skills.
In the Crossed Lines branch of the series, a crossover with Supernatural, we were again incorporating characters from a TV series about men. As much as we've enjoyed the show, we're well aware of their reputation of having female characters who are only the victim and/or love interest of the week; the women who stick around for multiple episodes are almost always killed off within a season. (I'm so happy Jody and Donna are still alive; maybe things are improving? I'm not caught up on the current season, though.) Therefore we conspired to add recurring female characters, ranging from goddesses to witches. The Chloe character might be as close as we've come to self-insertion, although wish-fulfillment might be a better description: a woman whose full-time job is writing and who gets to travel to interesting locations while she telecommutes instead of reporting to an office. Chloe has a much cooler car than I do, and might share my taste in music.
When Silbrith created the Arkham Files stories, she re-read Lovecraft and had concerns about how those original stories portrayed (or excluded) women and people of color. She's done an excellent job of adding more representation in her take on Arkham. Eleanor and Marjorie are women in charge of their departments at Miskatonic University, and Lavinia is the head librarian. The Elizabeth in that world is the head of the local hospital's neurology department. Glass ceilings are broken, and women are featured in STEM fields.
We've also made sure that we don't feature only young women. The female characters span a wide age range. Isabelle, for instance, was a heroine of the French resistance in World War II. Betty, Ilsa, Irene, Julia, and June are some of the women approximately two generations older than Neal.
As we were discussing this post, another aspect Silbrith pointed out was the female friendships we've established in our series. For instance, Elizabeth and June have fulfilling lives and friendships beyond their interactions with the male characters. In addition to the event planning business El had in canon, she also participates in community theater, leading to a friendship with costume designer Janet. June sits on the board to two organizations, and has purchased a stake in Masterson Music. Sara and Fiona became friends as their work lives overlapped, and when Fiona pulled a group of Columbia students into an informal band, Angela joined in. Angela befriended Maggie while working at the Aloha Emporium, and then Maggie started teaching Angela and Sara self defense. June has befriended and mentored Diana as a writer, and that has led to friendships with Tricia and El. Chloe and Maia bonded over magic, and have added Peony to the mix.
I have both pride in what we've written, and a determination to do better. I love the women we've included in this series, and want to give them more opportunities to shine. Last month I finally got around to watching Ocean's 8, and that has prompted ideas for a story focusing on some of our amazing female characters.
I'm also determined to get better at passing the Bechdel test. Of the eight stories I wrote for the Chocolate Box exchange this year, four had female characters, but only two pass the Bechdel test.
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