rav
Initiate Douchebag
Posts: 24
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Post by rav on Sept 25, 2015 3:32:22 GMT -8
My problem with the Bechdel Test is that even in an ideal situation, it's totally meaningless except as a mental excercise. Given an even distribution of male and female characters paired up and talking about 1 of 3 things; a man, a woman, or other, you'll only get two women paired up talking about something other than a man about 17% of the time. A woman would talk to another woman about a man about 8% of the time, and a woman talking to anyone about a man about 1/4 of the time.
Now that I see the data, I can see why the Bechdel was thought up. If movies portray women talking to each other about a man significantly higher than the 8% that is statistically projected, an argument for sexism could be made.
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Post by ayslyn on Sept 25, 2015 7:43:47 GMT -8
My problem with the Bechdel Test is that even in an ideal situation, it's totally meaningless except as a mental excercise. Given an even distribution of male and female characters paired up and talking about 1 of 3 things; a man, a woman, or other, you'll only get two women paired up talking about something other than a man about 17% of the time. A woman would talk to another woman about a man about 8% of the time, and a woman talking to anyone about a man about 1/4 of the time. Now that I see the data, I can see why the Bechdel was thought up. If movies portray women talking to each other about a man significantly higher than the 8% that is statistically projected, an argument for sexism could be made. Not really, no. It just means that there is a higher than projected quantity. Plus, you're assuming that all the items in your projection have equal weight, which is a bit of a fatal conceit. Also, there are plenty of times where you have items that fail the letter of the test, but not the spirit, as illustrated just a couple of posts above.
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