“Island of Fire” and the Bechtel Test: Transforming the Tasting Learning Opportunity into a

In 1985, cartoonist Alison Bechtell drew a sequence in her strip Dikes need to be careful Which portrayed a couple of women walking to the cinema. “I have this rule,” says one. “I only go to the cinema if it meets three basic requirements: one, there must be at least two women, two of them talking to each other, except three men.” The main thing is that, by those standards, it was the last movie he saw. abroad – Posted six years ago.

The Bechtel test, as these three rules became known, has since entered vernacular culture as a representation of gender representation in the media. He created variations intended to involve behind the scenes and cross, sometimes with extremely grandiose stereotypes and tropes in images of women (“A point if the sex scene shows the pre-game ending”).

Most importantly, Bechtel, who attributes her original striptease to the works of her friend Liz Wallace and Virginia Woolf, provided context for her comments in the background of each illustrated panel: Two Women Walking Talking. Past movie posters with titles like barbarossa s SurveillanceWhich features fat men.

In the summer 2022 romantic comedy island of fireJoel Kim Booster can also be crushed, but your walk will solve it. Pride and Prejudice It’s not the kind of patriarchal narrative that Bechtel, Wallace and Wolfe have tried to challenge. Still writer, novelist and editor of Hannah Rossini new york magazineA portfolio of podcasts chose to use the Bechtel test in the film and wanted: “So @hulu #FireIslandMovie takes the F in the Bechtel test in a whole new way,” he wrote in a now-deleted tweet. Monday afternoon. “Are we just ignoring uncomfortable lesbian stereotypes of our favorite gay boys before our age? Is this revenge for the gay boy’s best friend all these years?

After the tweet quickly spread, Rossin apologized the next day. Recognition“The film tells the story of strange men at AAPI whose experiences aren’t seen enough in the movies or anywhere else. But the initial impetus, as well as Rosin’s admission that she didn’t expect to retire, still serve as a useful lesson in how inclusive ideals can be misused or even weaponized:

Stories should not be about a historically excluded identity All Their. If the film, written by Booster and directed by Andrew Ahan, isn’t the first to depict the experiences of gay Asian-American men (particularly to their delight), it’s safe to say it’s the most high-profile project in history. . The Searchlight rom-com, released on Hulu on June 3rd, has received many press releases, including features ✓ New York Times s Vulture s EW The cover story, then, might make sense for the mostly male ensemble to attract the attention of feminist critics, were it not for the expected shadow of America’s number one film, Top Gun: MaverickMacho is a sequel to the mostly male blockbuster that came out a year after the Bechtel comics.

so why was it island of fire Distinguished for Failing the Bechtel Test? Why was there an impetus for a film that was labeled a “diversity film” at a higher level than a film that doesn’t even try to be such a thing? What’s the story of voting for a chronically excluded group that causes others to demand it too?

This is a rhetorical question, but not uncommon. “island of fire “Ignore Lesbians” The Answer Reminds Us Of Some Of The Critics Of 2018 crazy rich asian This criticized Rom-com for not reflecting the experiences of low- and middle-income groups in the diaspora, as well as much more valid concerns about the lack of Afro-Latin actors playing Dominican-American characters in 2021. on the heights. In all cases, the discontent between the two marginalized classes stems from the same culprit: the persistent underrepresentation of all those not directly from the white minority, which most narratives support. Their ubiquity makes them invisible, leaving them clearly differentiated to overcome the lack of representation and inclusion of all.

Some even have an Asian problem. There are three trends and island of fire This is the third Asian-focused film in as many months that it complains about the stories it curates at the center. In March, the editorial director of Cinema Blend announced turn redUnlike other Pixar films, it was not designed for a universal audience. “The target audience seems very specific and very limited,” she wrote in a review (later published by the site) of an animated film about a Chinese-Canadian teenager. “If you like that, it might work well for you. I don’t like it, it was exhausting. ”

And in May, the only two critics panicked. everything everywhere at the same time – the New YorkerRichard Brody and GuardPeter Bradshaw found that a Chinese immigrant family at its core lacked characterization. “The protagonists are universalized, deprived of history and culture, without a personal connection to the rest of the world,” Brody wrote, and Bradshaw said the film “never for a second really cared or believed in any of its characters.”

When it comes to art, every person has the right to express their opinion (even if it is unpopular). But the sentiment behind this trio of critically different films has something in common with the perpetual alien syndrome that persists in Asian Americans even centuries after they existed on this continent. In art and in life, Asians face the presumption of incompatibility. At best, it leads to a stupid tweet, but at worst, it can lead to deadly dehumanization.

Inclusion standards need to be constantly revised based on context and complexity. A significant portion of Rossini’s Twitter responses call for white feminism island of fire By its own metrics, when the film was about Asian stone men, it was about another kind of marginalized person. In other words, the Bechtel test was never designed or equipped to account for other excluded demographics that are beyond patriarchal/feminist (white) dualism. Gender, race, and sexuality intersect and interact in ways complicated by the fact that unequal power dynamics exist along each axis, a force that permeates white supremacist identities.

“Personally, I’ve never been a big fan of the Bechtel test or anything like that, because I think they’re too simplistic. On twitter Feminist writer Jen Feng, who runs the culture blog Reappropriated. “They don’t take into account the specific political landscape the film occupies; “Instead, they are universalizing the politics of second wave feminism.”

Just as standardized tests are now understood as an imperfect and biased form of assessment that grants privileges to those who designed them, inclusive industry models must consider their origins and not be afraid to correct when new insights emerge.

Case in point: Tuesday night, Bechtel itself intervened. “Well, I just added a conclusion to the Bechtel test,” he said. On twitter. “Two men are talking about a film adaptation of the Alice Munro story, the Jane Austen novel = Pass. “Fire Island”

And now it’s official. ᲡThe case is closed.