BECHDEL TEST Does a Latina Playwright Need Permission to Write about Women’s Bodies? Commissioned by New Theatre Magazine Written by Elaine Romero
the invitation for the commission came in early 2016. It was for a Chicago storefront
theatre’s Bechdel Fest. I liked the idea of having my work be a part of an evening of plays that intentionally met the Bechdel Test. The interpretation of the Bechdel Test was fairly streamlined. Our plays were to focus on scenes between women about something other than a man. I assumed, erroneously, that we would all be writing feminist plays. I mean, we writing in the spirit of Alison Bechdel, right? Feminism felt on a positive uptick in early 2016. There was a woman running for president, and we were in a different place in our conversation about white feminism and women of color. We seemed on our way to a different future—a future that felt it would free us, and make us defy the obvious odds we live with daily, the fight for gender parity in a given theatre season, or the make-up of the Senate, or the Supreme Court. We learned it was true. We were on our way to a different future. It just wasn’t the different future we’d prognosticated.
