The Bechdel Test
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This article has got some serious MANSPLAINING going on and it is |
Some dumb idea that was the subject matter of a comic strip where two women discussed movies. Later, idiots on the internet used this dumb idea to judge all films. They even make pretty graphs about it.
According to user-edited databases and the media industry press, about half of all films meet the criteria posited by the strip. Passing or failing the test is not necessarily indicative of how well women are represented in any specific work. But failing this test has only negative connotations for the film. First, there is the implication of failure. A film that does not pass this test may cause a knee-jerk reaction discouraging potential viewers.
Another problem that arises is that this test brands films with is that it is placed on a "list."[1] Such lists are almost always used as evidence[2] of some sort of toxic patriarchy.
Finally, tests like these then go on to be applied to every single thing in the idiot's life. Books, TV shows, magazines, and eventually, silly things like flower pots or piles of cat shit. Everything is part of the patriarchy if we look at it with a hard enough eye.
Interestingly, this pile of crap began cropping up in the past five years. Film critics have begun obsessively mentioning it. Citing the Bechdel Test is a way for crazy left-wing critics to flap their political gums, often amid a digression about whether or not a film is “problematic,” meaning potentially injurious to the progressive propaganda war, mainly in the area of identity politics. Just another way to divide us all.
It's a Joke
The Bechdel test is a joke.[3] Bechdel is quick to admit that the idea wasn’t hers; it came from a friend who was probably a guy. After the strip resurfaced online and the test became a meme in recent years, she learned to stake more claim in it since it made her feel self-important and entitled.
The problem with this test is that it doesn't measure what it seems to measure. The number of female characters and the contents of their conversations are only symptoms of the real problem, which is the shallow portrayal of women in fiction. It's a cursory arm-chair analysis, the equivalent of trying to figure out if you have cancer by checking your ailments against the list of symptoms on WebMD. Feeling achy and tired does not mean you have cancer. Having cancerous cells means you have cancer. 
I wrote that cartoon in 1985—almost 30 years ago—it was just a little lesbian joke in an alternative feminist newspaper. -- Alison Bechdel[4]
There’s just been this evolution of women getting to be regular jerks, like men always got to be jerks -- Alison Bechdel[5]
Why it's a Joke
The three criteria of the Bechdel test, as originally written in the strip, are:
- It has to have at least two women in it
- who talk to each other
- about something besides a man.
A discussion might go something like this:
FEMINIST: Women are unfairly underrepresented in film.
SANE PERSON: Are they? Prove it.
FEMINIST: We have this thing called the Bechdel Test...
According to the criteria above, "Showgirls," a film that degrades women and reduces them to objects, passes the test.
Images
Just a couple of images showing Bechdel milking her new found internet presence and pseudo fame. Remember, the original comic was published in 1985...
See Also
References
- ↑ https://bechdeltest.com/
- ↑ https://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2010/02/where-are-the-women-.html
- ↑ https://blog.tkmarnell.com/blog.php?pid=215
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20150315011508/http://dykestowatchoutfor.com/
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20150316161800/http://www.sdcitybeat.com/sandiego/article-13243-comic-con-vs-the-bechdel-test.html
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