On The Bechdel Test
Feb. 4th, 2024 12:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grayestofghostsI have a lot of things I could write about but instead I'm going to write about a twitter post.
User solarlesbian wrote in response to another user,
"the bechdel test was a satirical joke about lesbian loneliness and alienation. don't piss me off
passing the bechdel test is not a litmus test for whether a work is feminist or not, it's not even about setting what is supposed to be "the feminist bare minimum" or whatever. it's literally a joke about how lesbians have to look for less than crumbs and still find nothing."
Another user notes how specifically the comic itself implies that this specific comic was made in response to 1980's muscle-guy movies, which aren't really a thing today, and another user notes how Allison Bechdel's favorite movie is apparently Groundhog Day, that does not pass this test.
There is definitely something to think about how 'lesbianism' has been conflated with 'feminism' when it's not, and has forced lesbianism, which is not a coherent social and political movement and never has been, to take up the reigns that straight feminists are unwilling to due to their inevitable proximity with men. One of the consequences of that has been kicking historically lesbian men (like me) out of lesbianism entirely on ideological grounds, but that's probably a topic for another post. With even the slightest bit of analysis, that straight women saddle lesbians with the 'job' of feminism unfairly while they get to be more 'complex' because they are 'forced to navigate men' becomes obvious and unjust.
Idk. These are not fully fleshed-out thoughts while I'm waiting for my boyfriend to get ready to go. I'm not the one to ask about this.
User solarlesbian wrote in response to another user,
"the bechdel test was a satirical joke about lesbian loneliness and alienation. don't piss me off
passing the bechdel test is not a litmus test for whether a work is feminist or not, it's not even about setting what is supposed to be "the feminist bare minimum" or whatever. it's literally a joke about how lesbians have to look for less than crumbs and still find nothing."
Another user notes how specifically the comic itself implies that this specific comic was made in response to 1980's muscle-guy movies, which aren't really a thing today, and another user notes how Allison Bechdel's favorite movie is apparently Groundhog Day, that does not pass this test.
There is definitely something to think about how 'lesbianism' has been conflated with 'feminism' when it's not, and has forced lesbianism, which is not a coherent social and political movement and never has been, to take up the reigns that straight feminists are unwilling to due to their inevitable proximity with men. One of the consequences of that has been kicking historically lesbian men (like me) out of lesbianism entirely on ideological grounds, but that's probably a topic for another post. With even the slightest bit of analysis, that straight women saddle lesbians with the 'job' of feminism unfairly while they get to be more 'complex' because they are 'forced to navigate men' becomes obvious and unjust.
Idk. These are not fully fleshed-out thoughts while I'm waiting for my boyfriend to get ready to go. I'm not the one to ask about this.
no subject
Date: 2024-02-05 01:29 am (UTC)I don't agree with that first line, but I can see where it might come from. But it is quite a long time since I read Dykes to Watch Out For and I might change my mind if I reread.