by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I generally don’t believe that the “woke cancel culture mob” exists. What we refer to as the “woke cancel culture mob” is an amalgam of technology speeding up social change along with younger people having different expectations. Throw in how fucking MAGA cocksuckers use anything that makes them feel uncomfortable as an excuse to rant about people being “canceled” and, well, there you go — woke cancel culture mob is born.
But there are a few things that really irritate me when it comes to what the whippersnappers believe relative to me, the graybeard. One of those things is how passionately they believe in the so-called “Bechdel Test.” This test, proposed in a comic(!) is referred to even by its creator as a “half joke.” But the way the more woke among us view this test, you would think if anything you read that doesn’t pass the test, the book in question has be thrown across the room with great vigar.
I call bullshit.
But let’s look at what the test is. In essence it’s: “Two women must have a conversation about something other than a man.“
Now, it’s not so much that the test exists that enrages me, it’s that if I tell a great story and it (tragically?) doesn’t pass the fucking test that somehow I’m dinged for being a bad storyteller.
THIS MAKES ME VERY ANGRY.
The point of any art is to be provocative and to tell a great story. You go where the story takes you. It seems like the Bechdel Test is a hack crutch for people with no talent to make people who do have talent feel bad. I’m well aware that taking such a stance may not endear me to some literary agents when I start to query later next year. Ok, I get. But it’s not like I don’t validate those people who are really into the Bechdel Test. I do. Have it.
But any sort of test for art like the Bechdel Test seems…rather hackish? Great art isn’t supposed to have rules other than whatever you have to follow to convey a great story. And telling me that I have to twist and contort my work to pass the fucking Bechdel Test is not cool.
What’s more, I have so many female characters in my work that it’s probably going to be pretty easy for me to pass the fucking test that I keep ranting about! Now what?
Anyway. What’s the point of having principles if you’re not willing to suffer for them?
