okay but do you understand that liz wallace made the bechdel-WALLACE test because she was a dyke who wanted to go to movies and pretend the characters were dykes and her friend alison bechdel happened to put her silly little litmus assessment into a comic strip and then the rest of everyone else decided it was a bona fide way of means testing media for Feminist Content? do you know that? it doesn’t sound like you know that
some of you are the dumbest motherfuckers alive
I’ve said it before (in multiple posts on this site) but I’ll say it again, explicitly, here.
the Bechdel-Wallace test, even if it started out as a cute little joke, was always about what it took for queer women and lesbians to see ourselves in media.
it was never about cishet women at all.
so. idgaf if you as a cishet woman don’t think the Bechdel test seems very radical or feminist—it’s 2021 and I still don’t see myself or the women I love represented in film, as a lesbian. and I’m tired of it.
Instead of the Bechdel test, we should create a new test, where two queer (by queer I mean anyone belonging to LGBTQIA) characters with name talk to each other about anything unrelated to being queer, without a straight cis participating in the conversation. Bonus points to the writer if both characters make it to the end of the story alive and are not romantically or sexually involved with each other.
I wanted to test out this claim about Katara and Aang’s relationship not being as one-sided as people say it was, so I created a version of the “Bechdel Test” to use while watching each episode of ATLA… to see if Aang put as much effort in being there for Katara as she did to him.
I now use this prompt for whenever people ask me why ZK came off as the healthier relationship compared to KA in ATLA:
PART I
1) Throughout the series – meaning, the 8-9 months they travel together – how many times do Katara and Aang talk to each other?
2) Of those times, how many are positive and constructive conversations with a non-combative/dismissive outcome?
3) …about Katara’s emotional obstacles, wants or needs?
4) And does the conversation end with a consensual hug or lip-kiss?
PART II
Okay– so, same questions, except now it’s Katara and Zuko, in the span of only 3-4 weeks they travel together after mid-season 3.
What I’m getting at here is that in the entire span of the show, Katara put on 10/10 effort in getting to know Aang, demonstrating that she cared about his needs, but at best, Aang put about 0.5/10 effort in getting to know Katara as a person (meaning, the person outside of what she did for him.)
This comes off as a very one-sided relationship because Aang says and insists to people that he loves her, but doesn’t really show that he wants to help her through her own inner struggles, or listen to her wants/needs. Aang builds this perfect “dream girl” in his mind– so much so, that whenever she gets angry, Aang gets uncomfortable, or flees, or downplays her combativeness.
Katara builds this guarded wall to herself and has to learn to deal with her issues on her own, never approaching Aang for advice the way he does for her. In “The Waterbending Scroll” in season 1 – she doesn’t express to Aang that she was jealous of his gifted skills with waterbending or talk about how it’s okay to be bitter at someone who excels at something you’re passionate about and eventually let that go and continue working hard– Katara instead keeps those feelings to herself, pretends that she doesn’t want to use the scroll again, and then sneaks away to try and learn Waterbending in secret (which puts the team in danger). The same behavior occurs with “Painted Lady” in season 3– Katara doesn’t express to Aang how she believes they should stay in the village to help more, despite whatever schedule Sokka has for them. Instead, she secretly plots ways to extend their stay, then sneaks away at night to help the village on her own in disguise (which puts the team in danger). From the start of the series, to the end of the series, Katara deals with her own inner conflict and feels like she has to sneak away from the group in order to fulfill what she truly wants. Before Zuko shows up, Sokka is the one who seems to understand her needs (and encourages it in episodes like “Imprisoned”) but Aang remains oblivious on how to help or approach Katara in that mature, comforting way. It’s always the other way around.
Compare all of this to Zuko, where it only took 3-4 weeks starting at the “Western Air Temple” for him to show to Katara that he cared about heras a person– not just as the one protecting the Avatar, but about her past trauma and needs. Zuko didn’t have to care about getting on Katara’s good graces; he didn’t have to worry about making friends, if his whole intent was to help Aang/The Avatar with fire-bending. But Zuko still made the effort. Katara dismisses him, pushes him away, yells at him angrily, but Zuko calmly and persistently approaches Katara to show that he’s not the same person who betrayed everyone in BSS, even if it means going to great lengths to help her find peace.
The hug that Katara and Zuko have after she forgives him for that betrayal feels incredibly earned, because it feels like these two characters who had been at odds for the longest time are finally on the same page. Never was Zuko’s goal to “win Katara’s heart” or to idolize her as a “Dream Girl”– Zuko merely wanted to earn his place at the table with the Gaang and prove that he was a loyal friend to Katara, someone who saw her as an equal, a partner. Zuko puts in the effort to face her (with all her rage) and understand her, and she eventually approaches him warmly in the same way when they meet The White Lotus.
To me these were the strong breadcrumbs of a healthy, long-term relationship.
PART III - Take-Aways
So, as someone who’s been a girl all her life with a decent amount of relationship experience (good and bad)… I want to say to all the boys out there relentlessly pursuing the “girl of their dreams:”
-If you truly care about this girl, don’t just assume that the time and affection she gives you (in words, hugs, kisses on the cheek) entitles you to her.
-Don’t just declare to the world that you love her and assume she feels the same. Get to know her as a person, first. Learn what it is that she wants for herself, how she feels about things she is dealing with internally whenever she comes across as “having it all together.”
-Listen to what the girl is saying (not just through words, but also actions and body language) and respond accordingly. If you feel like you don’t know how to listen or respond, do your homework to understand where she is coming from… learn to see her perspective on things so you can be emotionally available to her in a mature open-minded way. This will help for any moment she does feel that she can trust you enough to approach you with her feelings. Listening to her and getting to know her is the best way to realize whether or not you can also be there for her, and it’s best to have that ready before going for a kiss or any indications that you want a relationship with her.
-After all of this… if it’s apparent that she only sees you as a friend, or is confused about her feelings, or just not ready for a relationship for whatever reason… respect that! Don’t pry or push or guilt-trip or threaten her into having a relationship. Love is not about possessiveness, but about selflessness… about meeting the person half-way, about accepting each other and all the baggage that comes with them, the drama they would have to deal with together in the present moment… believing that these feelings are enough to get through it all. (Suki and Sokka are a wonderful example of this, as they were still willing to openly admit their feelings despite the context of the war).
-True love is knowing when to give someone space, and accepting the possibility that in the end, this girl might not feel the same way about you… and you still being okay with that outcome.In the end, if you really love and care about this girl, you will want her to find happiness with someone– even if that someone is not you.
So I’m assuming most of the people who see this will be miraculous fans since I do mostly do miraculous content and that’s my most popular stuff.
My brother and I are finally getting around to watching the lastest season of miraculous and we started talking about how Marinette mostly only talks about Adrien or Luka to her friends and those around her.
My brother started wondering if miraculous passes the Bechdel test.
Out of curiosity I ended up looking it up to see if anyone online had said whether it passes or not and saw that Thomas has an argument with a fan online
I have to agree with the fans, Thomas really reaching. And his excuse is “it’s about the romance” that’s his excuse for why Marinette only talks about Adrien but Adrien who’s also a main character and the love interest has a life outside of the romance. He has episodes that have nothing to do with romance and convos that have nothing to do with romance like that person pointed out, Adrien has had an episode of just him having fun with his friends but Marinette has not. Beside it’s also a teenage superhero show. Therefore it should have a variety of things to talk about. Again Adrien talks about things other than his crush. But marionette talks mainly about Adrien
But at the same time I figured I could be wrong I could be remembering things wrong it’s been a bit since I’ve been able to watch the show so I could be wrong. My brother realized the test would be based on an episode by episode basis. And by default they’re will be some episodes that fail the test because yea it is a romcom so as friends they should address the love interest. However i was wondering about the ratio of fail to pass because boys should not be the main thing they talk about.
We also wanted to compare the guys to the girls. How often does Adrien only talk about his romantic endeavours compared to Marinette? Is it fair? 50/50? Or at least pretty close?
So I wanted to put this up here and ask if any of you guys want to be in on this discussion and want to compare notes? You can just put down episode you think do or don’t pass for both Adrien and Marinette and why
I thought it’d be an interesting thing to discuss and interesting to see the results
