this is a story about regeneration.
“As the Bechdel Test began to creep into the sightline of mainstream movie criticism, it was notable to see the surprise of some male critics that their favorite movies—One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Goodfellas, The Princess Bride, Clerks, the original Star Wars trilogy, the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, and even Tootsie, when you get right down to it—so soundly flunked it. For many women, the reaction was more of a shrug, along with relief that, finally, there was a simple way to help writers and directors step over an embarrassingly low baseline. To be clear, applying the rule isn’t about snatching away the well-earned status of Raging Bull or The Godfather or even This Is Spinal Tap. As Anita Sarkeesian, creator of the Web site Feminist Frequency, noted in a 2009 video about the rule, “It’s not even a sign of whether it’s a feminist movie, or whether it’s a good movie, just that there’s a female presence in it.” The latter point is something that many people fail to grasp when trying to explain away why their favorite movies don’t pass the test (“But Batman is the hero of the movie! Of course the women characters are going to talk about him!”): the Bechdel Test is not a judgment of quality or nuance. After all, the beautiful, moving Gravity fails the test, while a formulaic rom-com like 27 Dresses passes with no problem. But the test itself is a simple, bloodless assessment of whether female characters are deemed important to a story—and a way to conclude that, most of the time, they aren’t.”
— We Were Feminists Once: From Riot Grrrl to CoverGirl®, the Buying and Selling of a Political Movement (Zeisler, Andi)
This makes me happy that it has an explanation, because too many people misunderstand the point of the test. “It sets the bar too low!” They say. That’s the point. It’s the lowest bar possible and many movies can’t pass it.
also a moment of silence for female characters who get a lot of shit but would be adored if they were male
my advice to women: scream more, wreak havoc, be ugly and gross, use the sword emojis
my advice to men: develop a sense of shame
there’s nothing more absolutely tepid and luke-warm than people trying to force the square “pokemon” peg into the round “super gritty and painfully edgy” hole. like did you know, actually, if a charizard breathed fire on something, that it would fucking die?? i do actually know that because i also live in the world and am aware of the concept of physics, chemistry, and basic biology. i am also capable of “imagination” and “suspension of disbelief,” which is a weird ability of mine that allows me to interact with media without feeling the need to tell other people that this couldn’t happen in real life.
yes, making two animals fight in real life is abusive and abhorent. no, pokemon is not comparable because it takes place in a fantasy setting where a pokemon’s inherent nature is to be competitive, where a realistically violent battle equates to friendly sparring in the context of this universe, and where physical combat is an allegorical device used to demonstrate the growing bond of friendship between pokemon and their trainers.
no, pokemon and pokemon battles are not realistic in our universe. trying to remove this concept from its context, where it very much makes sense, is the most boring fucking thing you could do. i promise it will not kill you to take things at face value from time to time. pokemon is a franchise propped up on pillars of friendship, determination, and harmony with nature. it’s much, much, much more fun when you stop looking for secret, edgy lore, i promise
A painting I created a few years ago, for a book I made on my website sharing about my art journey. I didn’t mentioned this back then, but the two kids in this painting are actually my brother and sister :) I wanted to create something based off of childhood memories.
You can download the book for free from my website here: http://artofjess.com