Bechdel Test This

One evening, the only person in the diner was Rachel.

Claire found Rachel’s presence strangely comforting. For one thing, she was remarkably easygoing, and as she didn’t eat, never seemed to want anything from Claire. For another, it was mostly men who felt the need to go to a ghetto diner past midnight, so Rachel was usually the only other woman there.

Well, female. Well, um, feminine sentient being. Gynoid was the proper term. In thinking on this, Claire realized that she never really talked to any women these days. Although perhaps Rachel was close enough.

In any case, Claire felt the need for conversation, so she approach Rachel’s table. “Can I sit here?” she said.

Rachel lookup up from her work curiously. “Of course. It’s your diner.”

I was wondering about something. She paused for a long time. If you could leave this town, would you?

And go where? You think people in Haut would buy ‘junk jewelry’ made by a Construct? No way. I suppose I could go to Minerva…

You’ve thought about it, I take it?

Of course. But I don’t know I kind of like this place. And i kind of do like humans, for whatever reason. I guess I’m just a masochist. They mostly just ignore me, although there’s an occasional odd one that hits on me.

That’s annoying to you, I imagine.

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t really get it, but I don’t see the point in being annoyed by it either. I guess mammals can’t resist acting on their animal instincts sometimes. Nobody’s ever taken it too far though.” Then she looked up at Claire. “Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.”

It’s fine. I’ve always wondered. I mean it must seem odd to constructs the way humans are all crazy about food and sex and babies.

Rachel looked at claire thoughtfully, considering each part of Claire’s statement.

Food - not really. When I’m low on energy I get this… uncomfortable feeling, like I just NEED to plug in, and it feels great when i do. I imagine humans feel similarly about food. if there was a cafe where Constructs could just charge their batteries i’d probably go to it. But there isn’t, so… here i am.”

Sex - yeah I don’t get it. It’s kind of creepy to be honest. Then again humans think it’s creepy that i can disassemble myself. it’s just part of living in this city. Not everybody is like you.

Now babies… Rachel was uncharacteristically slow to finish her sentence, and it seemed to Claire that she was suddenly quite serious. “That I can understand, I think.” She paused again. “The idea that you could create another person, and one that was a variation of yourself, and teach it everything you know. That is something I understand.” she then said, in a more lighthearted way, “Although I do think it’s amusing that among humans, women seem to want children and men don’t, even though women are the ones who have to carry their young around for months.”

Claire looked at her carefully. She was happy for a natural path to a question she’d been wanting to ask, but she still approached with caution. “Are you, I mean, do you consider yourself a woman?”

Rachel looked down and started bending wires to make more jewelry. “Not really. But I don’t mind being called one, either. Again, I don’t see what the big deal is over the whole thing. I can’t help but notice that, aside from my physical design, I seem to have interests — decoration, jewelry, flowers — are typically feminine. I doubt this is random, and it seems entirely plausible that Constructs were programmed with personalities meant to match their appearance. For all we know, Crane decided that the more stereotypical a Construct’s behavior, the more marketable it would be. I’d like to ask him. We all would.”

“I have a friend,” Rachel went on, “that’s a cube. A two-foot by two-foot cube, with a plug in the back and an on/off switch. No voice, no human features. A great conversationalist, though, and a hundred times the mathemetician you or I will ever be. The fact that there are still any politics revolving around the slight variations among humans is strange to me.”