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Original poster

What are you watching & reading? Will you do the Beshdel Test on it?

211 replies

Seabright · 24/01/2013 23:32

I have been trying to apply the Beshdel Test to what I've been watching lately.

The wiki entry in the link above explains more, but basically to pass the Beshdel Test a work of fiction must have:

A) At least two female characters
B) Who Talk to each other
C) About something other than a man

This evening I have watched:

  1. Rizzoli & Isles - pass, just
  2. The Good Wife - pass

And I'm reading an Ian Rankin novel at the moment (yes, my choice of tv and books is pretty limited - crime & murder!) which so far fails, but I'm only part way through.

OP posts:
MidnightMasquerader · 25/01/2013 02:58

Ha, I went to see The Master last night (wonderfully acted; dire film) and came out having nodded off several times thinking what a waste of 2.5 hours that was, and it didn't even pass the Bechdel test...

RiaOverTheRainbow · 25/01/2013 00:37

To clarify, if it's a conversation with multiple topics, say, gardening, Obama and housing costs, does that pass or fail? And do young boys count as men?

Either way, The New Normal passes more often than not.

LRDtheFeministDragon · 25/01/2013 00:25

Just watched a documentary on English queens with a female presenter - passes, though quite a lot of it was about the men they married/might have married.

Reading - Apple Bough by Noel Streatfield. Passes easily. Children's lit often does, I've noticed.

Original poster
Seabright · 24/01/2013 23:59

I have just finished The Mystery of Mercy Close - I loved it. Thanks for letting me know about the typo - brain and fingers working at different speeds tonight!

OP posts:
JustAHolyFool · 24/01/2013 23:46

I'm reading The Mystery of Mercy Close by Marian Keyes and it passes, but sadly not by a hell of a lot.

Chaos - I LOVED The Hunger Games!

PS - it's Bechdel not Beshdel OP. I feel like an utter knob pointing that out, but just so's you know.

joanofarchitrave · 24/01/2013 23:43

Reading the Hobbit to ds - epic fail Grin

Just finished Jeanette Winterson 'why be happy when you could be normal' which is an epic pass, although it perhaps fails another test; is there more than one male character and do they talk to each other about something other than Jeanette Winterson?

Also recently finished Arthur and George by Julian Barnes. Erm... think it failed, in fact, though I wouldn't swear to it. I really enjoyed it, but I quite disliked The Sense of an Ending, which IIRC would have been a stonking fail, and that's one of the reasons I didn't like it.

StickEmWithThePointyEnd · 24/01/2013 23:42

Watching Game of Thrones and this episode passes, I think or maybe not. Queen Cersei and Catelyn Stark are talking about their children. Specifically, marrying them to each other and how pretty Catelyn's daughter is. In their defense there wasn't much else for women to do or think about in the time period the book is set.

I'd like to see a discussion between Arya and Brienne of Tarth. They wouldn't talk about men.

kim147 · 24/01/2013 23:38

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ChaosTrulyReigns · 24/01/2013 23:37

Blushingly, I'm reading The Hunger Games.

Think it passes.

Watching Homeland. Meh. Not quite.

kim147 · 24/01/2013 23:35

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CrunchyFrog · 24/01/2013 23:33

I'm reading The Hydrogen Sonata by Iain M Banks, which passes. Watching Bones, which is patchy!