NYMag podcaster notes that Fire Island fails the Bechdel test, Twitter responds

[babarsuhail]

So @hulu #FireIslandMovie gets an F- on the Bechdel test in a whole new way. Do we just ignore the drab lesbian stereotypes bc cute gay Asian boys? Is this revenge for all those years of the gay boy best friend?
- Hanna Rosin (@HannaRosin) June 6, 2022
NY Mag podcaster and author Hanna Rosin tweeted yesterday Fire Island gets an F- on the Bechdel

Comments

[waltzofthemoon]

The Bechdel test is not really useful when you look at it on a film-by-film basis, it's just trying to point out a general trend with film-making on a wide scale.

[fauxkaren]

exactly!

ppl seems to really misunderstand it.

it's not about applying it on a film by film basis and deciding if it passes or fails and therefore whether the movie is good or not. it is more about looking about the film industry as a whole and how women are represented (in relation to men).

It's not meant to be this like arbiter of whether a movie is ok or not. It's just meant to get people thinking about the role of women in movies.

[imnotasquirrel]

it's annoying how people constantly misuse the bechdel test

remember when pacific rim stans tried to make the mako mori test a thing bc they were so salty/defensive that PR didn't pass the bechdel test?

[namae_nai]

omg what was their idea of the mako mari test?

[_myaugust]

I believe it’s when there is at least one female character who has a plot arc/storyline that’s not in relation to a man.

[namae_nai]

Welp that is one low bar they expect us to settle for lol

[kjesta]

honestly i think the mako mori test had some more validity behind it bc the bechdel test can be passed by two unnamed women exchanging five words at the check-out in front of the main character. the bechdel test was never intended to measure how feminist a movie is. (ETA: this isn't meant as a critique of the bechdel test. just a critique of people trying to use it as a measuring stick for something it was never meant to be/do.)

the mako mori test wasn't perfect either, and idt a movie can only be good if it passes it, but i thought it was a well-meant attempt at a better assessment of (quality) female representation onscreen. (though obviously it hasn't stuck around lol.)

[imnotasquirrel]

but the big problem with the mako mori test is that it was developed by stans who completely misread/misapplied the bechdel test. and that misunderstanding flowed into the test itself, because they were too defensive over the possibility that their fave might not be the most progressive feminist hero ever. the beauty of the bechdel test is in how simple/objective it is. there's really no way you can argue over whether a movie passes the bechdel test or not. you can't say the same for the mako mori test. a test that is based on such subjective interpretation of a character's plotline misses the point.

i'm imagining something like the bechdel test applied to race. (i.e. two poc characters have a conversation that does not revolve around a white character.) i loved maggie q's nikita, but i'm not positive the show would have passed that kind of test. i loved that show for having an asian female lead, but i wasn't such an unthinking stan that that would have pissed me off.

[kjesta]

i have to admit that while i was a big fan of PR for a brief time, i apparently only hung out in the absolute chillest corners lol, bc i never saw any of that saltiness. i wouldn't put it past any fandom tho, and that context is pretty disappointing.

my issue w the bechdel test as used these days is that it simply was never meant as a tool to assess female representation. from what i know it was a tongue-in-cheek thing in a comic about lesbians, by lesbian alison bechdel, and kind of lampshaded how as a lesbian you can't even see two women interact in films without being about men. (so subsequently, sapphic representation? virtually nonexistent.) while ofc it does make a point about broader feminist issues of representation, even if you use it to assess a large dataset rather than individual stories, this was just never what it was designed for, and even scoring a yes for a film tells you nothing.

[hardto_remember]

but that would take NUANCE girl we don't do that on the internet!

[bellwetherr]

it was also a fucking joke that she regrets making lmao