The Bechdel Test is a set of criteria for movies that emphasizes the fact that all lives are very complex, and have a lot of things going on in them. The test appeared as a sort of joke in Allison Bechdel’s comic strip “Dykes to Watch Out for”, where it also lists the requirements, which are that there must be a conservation between 2 or more women that isn’t about or related to men. The set of criteria soon gained popularity on a global scale by the feminist community, due to the fact that many feminists saw that many female characters in movies weren’t as complexly made as their male counterparts. Some have even done as far as to make addition to the Bechdel Test, with examples including that the conversation between the 2 or more women must go on for a certain amount of time.
Going back to Bechdel’s comic, is there a specific audience for “Dykes to Watch Out for”? How popular was the the comic strip when this specific one was made? I’m interested in finding out just how much the audience helped in the popularization of the Bechdel Test.