Dykes to Watch Out For

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Dykes to Watch Out For (also: DTWOF) is a comic strip by the American Alison Bechdel . It was first published in 1983 and is one of the most successful and oldest queer comic strips worldwide .

content

Dykes To Watch Out For describes the life, relationships and political entanglements of its characters - most of whom are lesbian ( Dyke ) - in a medium-sized city somewhere in the United States. The storyline follows that of a comedic soap opera - the relationships between the characters are followed, problems have to be solved and strokes of fate dealt with, new characters appear. At the same time, however, the dialogues are provided with biting, sometimes ironic comments, and current political events are taken up and commented on. For example, some figures take part in Gay Pride parades and demonstrations, attend feminist events and discuss American politics, for example after the attacks of September 11, 2001 .

The figures

Monica Testa
(in short: Mo) is the protagonist of the strip. She is a politically engaged, lesbian feminist with a tendency to whine. She works at the independent bookstore Madwimmin Bookstore before graduating with a degree in library science and starting to work as a librarian.
Lois McGiver
Drag King and employee first at Mo, then in another bookstore and roommate of Ginger and Sparrow, currently meets frequently with Jasmin, Janis' single mother. Janis, initially Jonas, teenager and transgender , finds a contact in Lois.
Ginger Jordan
is Professor of English at Buffalo Lake State University. Her student Cynthia is trying to get admission to the CIA and is coming out to her parents. Ginger has a relationship with Samia, a Muslim chemist from Syria who is married to a man. Ginger still lives in a house they share with Sparrow, but is looking for a new apartment with Samia.
Sparrow Pidgeon
born Prudence, director of a women's shelter and atheist , she describes herself as a " bisexual lesbian". She currently has a relationship with Jewish pro-feminist Stuart Goodman, who is raising their child Jiao Raizel (or JR) at home, as is Jasmin's daughter Janis. Sparrow, Stuart and Ginger share a house.
Toni Ortiz
is CPA and business economist, but took a break for a few years to raise her son Rafael Clifford-Ortiz (also: Raffi). She had a longstanding relationship with
Clarice Clifford
a work-hungry environmental lawyer. Clarice and Toni have celebrated a commitment ceremony in a backyard, a civil union in the state of Vermont and a wedding in the city hall and are the mutual parents of Raffi. Right now they are wondering if a divorce really requires moving apart.
Sydney Krukowsky
is a professor of women's studies and does not place much emphasis on profound moral thoughts. She enjoys spending more than she has, is currently in a relationship with Mo, and has just completed successful breast cancer treatment.
Jezanna Ramsay
(formerly: Alberta) is a manager at Madwimmin and head of Mo until she starts her librarianship studies. The lesbian-gay Madwimmin Bookstore will also work for Lois and Thea, a lesbian Jew who has multiple sclerosis and who had a relationship with Sydney during her college days , until it closes . After her shop closes, Jezanna becomes a teacher of English as a Foreign Language.

Publications

The strip appeared regularly from the summer of 1983 in the feminist newspaper Womannews . After a year, the very successful series was also adopted by other newspapers. Twelve anthologies have been published, seven of them also in German translation. Alison Bechdel also published a few strips on the Internet. In 2008 the author announced that she was taking a break from the series.

The first anthology contains mixed, partly incoherent individual strips. The series around Mo begins about halfway through the second volume More Dykes to Watch Out For .

From the third volume onwards, Alison Bechdel began to add a graphic novel at the end of each volume . Sometimes these are just flashbacks, for example in Unnatural Dykes to Watch Out For , at the end of which Bechdel describes how her main characters met each other. Sometimes completely new twists in the plot are made possible, like the birth of Raffi at the end of Spawn of Dykes to Watch Out For .

Between 1991 and 2003 six volumes in German translation were published by Göttingen Verlag Daphne . After the death of the publisher's founder Susanne Amrain , the series was taken over by the Krug & Schadenberg publishing house, which has previously published one volume. The translation and graphic editing are both from Birgit Müller, in the first volume with the collaboration of Lisa Heineman. The first four volumes are currently out of print.

  1. Lesbian runs: ... like from a picture book . Daphne, 1991. ISBN 3-89137-012-1 (= More Dykes to watch out for , 1988)
  2. The fine type of lesbian . Daphne, 1993. ISBN 3-89137-014-8 (= New, improved! Dykes to watch out for , 1990)
  3. Wild lesbian world . Daphne, 1998. ISBN 3-89137-031-8 (= Unnatural dykes to watch out for , 1995)
  4. Turbo-horny lesbian pleasure . Daphne, 1999. ISBN 3-89137-032-6 (= Hot, throbbing dykes to watch out for , 1997)
  5. Lesbian chaos . Daphne, 2000. ISBN 3-89137-034-2 (= Split level dykes to watch out for , 1998)
  6. Postmodern lesbianism . Daphne, 2003. ISBN 3-89137-036-9 (= Post-dykes to watch out for , 2000)
  7. Lesbians and other carbon-based life forms . Krug and Schadenberg, 2005. ISBN 3-930041-47-2 (= Dykes and Other Carbon-Based Life-Forms to Watch Out For , 2003)

The following volumes have not yet been published in German:

  • Dykes to Watch Out For (1986)
  • Dykes to Watch Out For: The Sequel (1992)
  • Spawn of Dykes to Watch Out For (1993)
  • Invasion of the Dykes To Watch Out For (2005)
  • The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For (anthology with strips from previous volumes, 2008)

The Bechdel test

In the comic, the so-called Bechdel test , also known as the Bechdel / Wallace test or Bechdel law , is discussed: Bechdel refers to her friend Liz Wallace for inventing the test, which first appeared in 1985 in the comic strip "The Rule" . One person in this comic says that they will only see films that meet the following conditions:

  1. At least two women are playing
  2. who talk to each other
  3. about something other than a man.

A variant of the test in which the two women are not allowed to be extras is also called the Mo Movie Measure . The name is a misnomer, as neither Mo nor the other characters were introduced at the time the comic was published.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Neda Ulaby : The 'Bechdel Rule,' Defining Pop-Culture Character . In: All Things Considered , National Public Radio , September 2, 2008. Retrieved April 3, 2010. 
  2. ↑ Alison Bechdel : The Rule . Retrieved April 26, 2015.
  3. ^ The Bechdel Test, AKA, The Mo Movie Measure . Archived from the original on October 17, 2008. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved April 3, 2010. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.amptoons.com

Web links