closet-keys:

thatdiabolicalfeminist:

bugblr:

austinkleon:

The Bechdel Test

Alison Bechdel’s original 1985 Dykes To Watch Out For strip that became known as “The Bechdel Test.”

never forget that this was originally meant to demonstrate that lesbian representation was so rare that you wouldn’t even see two named women interact in a platonic manner let alone in a sexual or romantic one onscreen. 

I never really understood why this was lesbian specific until I realized how alienating it is to look for yourself on the screen and find not a single woman whose motivations and romantic interest and friendship and sacrifice aren’t focused entirely on men – esp if you’ve fought with heavy losses to decentralize men from your own life and focus on your more healthy non-coerced love of women.

Like, the bar isn’t “has a remotely shippable relationship with a woman”, it’s actually “has literally anything at ALL in her life that isn’t about men so I can relate to her dear God please.”

yes, thank you. I wish more folks understood this. 

this comic is about the horrible isolation and alienation lesbians feel in a culture where, in the majority of movies, women barely ever even talk to each other about something other than men, let alone have platonic intimacy with each other, let alone have romantic intimacy with each other, let alone love each other, let alone express love for each other, let alone have lives focused on each other. 

there are so few women who reflect us, and it’s genuinely a very lonely feeling.