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QC and the Bechdel test

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vidugavia:

--- Quote from: Zebediah on 10 Mar 2015, 09:40 ---Let me point out a weakness of the Bechdel test, using a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode as an example. TNG passes the test less often than I'd like, but there's one episode that technically fails the test in a situation where I think it should succeed: the episode "Ethics".

For those of you who aren't hard-core Trek geeks who know every episode by title, it's the one where Worf gets paralyzed in an accident and they bring in an outside specialist neurosurgeon to examine him. The neurosurgeon is female, as is Dr. Crusher, the ship's chief medical officer. These two doctors have several long conversations about Worf. Technically that makes the conversations fail the test, since Worf is male. However, the conversations have nothing at all to do with the fact that Worf is male, or the fact that both doctors are female - it is entirely two physicians discussing (and frequently disagreeing about) proper treatment of a patient. The gender of the physicians and the patient are both immaterial; you could change the genders of everyone involved and not have to change anything in the script except a few pronouns. That, in my opinion, is the way it should be done - the women aren't there as romantic prospects for the man but as the actual protagonists of the episode (Worf is arguably a secondary character in the episode even though its events revolve around him.)
--- End quote ---

But that is no weakness, as I see it. The Bechdel test quantifies the absence of independent female conversation. It doesn't necessarily say anything big regarding a singular work but it tells a lot about story-telling in general. Somehow men tend to be the main thing women can talk about regardless of how interchangeable their genders could be, plot-wise. In recording that tendency it is a good idea to use the Bechdel test rather stringently.   

LeeC:

--- Quote from: ReindeerFlotilla on 10 Mar 2015, 10:13 ---The interesting question is "how often does it pass verse how often would it be expected to pass, all things being equal."

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Oh, I thought you meant the comic overall and was presenting instances where it passed so to say that the comic overall passes.

Nomad90:
So much of the conversation on this thread has passed over my head, that I am considering declaring a no fly zone.

ReindeerFlotilla:
Nothing goes over my head.


My reflexes are too fast. I would catch it.

tywren:

--- Quote from: ReindeerFlotilla on 10 Mar 2015, 09:36 ---
--- Quote from: jwhouk on 10 Mar 2015, 04:14 ---Y'know, RF, you could start a separate thread on this - "QC and the Bechdel Test".

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I will if the results are interesting.

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Interesting or not, it needs to be done, because it's pushing the point of becoming a thread hijack. By my count there are roughly 2 pages worth of posts on the subject; and as this is something that encompasses QC as a whole it's kind of beyond the scope of the weekly discussion thread.

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