Alison Bechdel

Alison Bechdel is a cartoonist and her name is synonymous with the Bechdel Test* that she attributes to her friend Liz Wallace. It was initially meant to be applied to film, but has been used with other media as well. She wrote the strip Dykest to Watch Out For, and later the autobiographical graphic memoir Fun Home, which was nominated for several awards and won an Eisner for Best Reality-Based Work.  "The secret subversive goal of my work is to show that women, not just lesbians, are regular human beings."

* The Bechdel Test has three requirements, as they were spelled out in a strip called “The Rule”:

1. [the movie] has to have at least 2 women it it,

2. who talk to each other,

3. about something other than a man.

It has become shorthand to show whether or not something is woman-friendly.