"Ain't No Crime Like Being a Woman," Quentin Crisp

The first time someone talked about a movie trailer passing the "Dykes to Watch Out For" test, I thought she meant that two women who have a conversation about something other than a guy in a movie trailer were obviously "dykes to watch out for." As they say, similar satirical intent but no inflammable phallic object. The correct term for the phenomenon is the Bechdel Test, named for Dykes to Watch Out For creator and artist, Alison Bechdel, who wrote the original sequence where one of her characters explains that she only goes to see movies that feature:

Two women

Having a conversation

About something other than a man.

I wonder if you could apply this test to my current bette noir, superhero comics? Off the top of my head, I'm thinking DC's Birds of Prey would squeak in under the wire as Oracle and her team of operatives do actually discuss their cases and not all bad guys out their in the DC'verse are actually guys, eh? Brian Michael Bendis, for all his agressively guy-ness on his boards actually writes some of the better female characters out there in Marvel-land but I'm hard pressed to recall a conversation between two female characters in one of his titles that wasn't at least technically about a man... hmmmmmmm.

Meanwhile, I spent part of the morning enjoying the April edition of Sequential Tart and picked up a fistful of links:

An Open Letter on the Topic of Stephanie Brown - I have to admit that I wasn't a huge Spoiler/Robin IV fan but I thought putting a girl in at the Robin position was a change that was overdue after nearly 70 years and had the potential to add a different spin to the Batman/Robin mentor/father-figure relationship. What readers got instead was the worst sort of attention-seeking stunt that ultimately ended with the character, a teenaged girl, being tortured for several hours then euthanized by her physician.

Taken alone, I'd be inclined to dismiss it as hackery but, in the context of the general attrition and disenfranchisement among the female members of Batman's supporting cast both then (Sequential Tart: "Batman - Hate Crime?"), and since (Cassie Cain, girl assassin, anyone?), it starts to look like a systemic misogyny on the part of DC Editorial.

300: A Fangirl's Rant - an interesting essay that articulates many of the problems I had with the political subplot Zack Snyder created for Queen Gorgo. Basically, when you're dealing with Miller, don't add - more drama is Not. Necessary.