Doctor Who, Season Nine

[Esquilax]

The Bechdel Test is a reliable indicator though of how women's roles are demeaned. This is a symptom of something that occurs more widely through society is why we have glass ceilings and pay gaps and why traditionally women's work is undervalued..

I think the most obvious example of Doctor Who failing the Bechdel test for me was that haunted house episode where they rescue Clara's descendent from the future. The only time the two women talked alone with each other it was about how they felt about their respective men.

Kinda? The test has its uses, I'm not denying that, and it's certainly an interesting observation, but I think it's become rather overhyped in comparison to what it can actually show us; it's not this beacon of what is and isn't feminist, just a tool. In isolation it doesn't actually say anything at all about the strength of the female characters or themes of the work; it's very possible to craft a strong, female-oriented piece that only has one female character in it, thus precluding it from passing right off the bat. Conversely, it's possible to construct a cast that's all female, with men never coming up at all, that's still sexist as hell.

What matters is the characters and plots, not the specific, content agnostic arrangement that the Bechdel Test looks for; passing the Bechdel Test should be a single step in discussing a work from a gender perspective, and a lot of people find it easy to just end the conversation at "doesn't pass the test equals sexist." Even the study we were talking about only focused on passing the test and time values, rather than what actually went on during those times, which is sort of the important bit.