Common sense item #2, Folly of the Bechdel test.
For the uninitiated, the Bechdel
test is just one little question asked of a work of fiction, (book, short
story, movie, play) “do you have more than one woman and do they talk about
something other than men?”
Right
there is an implied narrative limitation that pigeon holes the work and most of
the time nullifies it as a serious piece of fiction. First, is there more than
one main female lead, the first implication. Why does it matter if there is
only one female? If the author wants to prove the horrors of war, then women
should be absent in the tale. If the author wants a isolated woman, alone with
her feelings of her life and thoughts of her future while in a cabin on the
side of a mountain, why must there be another to discuss it with her to make it
a serious work of fiction?
Secondly,
by eliminating the work if two females talk about men, nullifies a huge section
of literature, romance. (And all of its derivatives.) What’s wrong with
romance? Relationships between men and women are a very important part of life,
almost central.
“Yeah,
Shaun, right, I can see you snagging the latest romance novel just to get your
feel on,” says the naysayer. Maybe so, however, the option should be there and
I know I would learn a small part of how a woman feels and thinks. So my reply
is thus, “Anything which makes me better at the most important relationship, my
wife, has eternal value, and it will help me teach my boys how to begin to
understand women.”
So, my
reader, decide for yourself if a story has value and merit based upon your own
criteria. Leave it not for those who think they know better than you. They do
not.
#bechdeltest #wittycriticism #thinkforyourself
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