diff --git a/tests/modeltests/str/tests.py b/tests/modeltests/str/tests.py
index bed9ea719b..2c11ac8c78 100644
--- a/tests/modeltests/str/tests.py
+++ b/tests/modeltests/str/tests.py
@@ -4,23 +4,32 @@ from __future__ import absolute_import, unicode_literals
 import datetime
 
 from django.test import TestCase
+from django.utils import six
+from django.utils.unittest import skipIf
 
 from .models import Article, InternationalArticle
 
 
 class SimpleTests(TestCase):
+
+    @skipIf(six.PY3, "tests a __str__ method returning unicode under Python 2")
     def test_basic(self):
         a = Article.objects.create(
             headline=b'Area man programs in Python',
             pub_date=datetime.datetime(2005, 7, 28)
         )
-        self.assertEqual(str(a), b'Area man programs in Python')
-        self.assertEqual(repr(a), b'<Article: Area man programs in Python>')
+        self.assertEqual(str(a), str('Area man programs in Python'))
+        self.assertEqual(repr(a), str('<Article: Area man programs in Python>'))
 
     def test_international(self):
         a = InternationalArticle.objects.create(
             headline='Girl wins €12.500 in lottery',
             pub_date=datetime.datetime(2005, 7, 28)
         )
-        # The default str() output will be the UTF-8 encoded output of __unicode__().
-        self.assertEqual(str(a), b'Girl wins \xe2\x82\xac12.500 in lottery')
+        if six.PY3:
+            self.assertEqual(str(a), 'Girl wins €12.500 in lottery')
+        else:
+            # On Python 2, the default str() output will be the UTF-8 encoded
+            # output of __unicode__() -- or __str__() when the
+            # python_2_unicode_compatible decorator is used.
+            self.assertEqual(str(a), b'Girl wins \xe2\x82\xac12.500 in lottery')