The Bechdel Test

Today I learned about The Bechdel Test. You know what it is, even if you don't know the name.  It's the test for movies: 1) it has to have at least two women in it, who (2) who talk to each other, about (3) something besides a man. Of course I knew about this test and I knew the three questions, but the point is that when an article I was reading referred to the Bechdel Test, I had no idea what it was referring to.  Google quickly showed me the test, and in that moment I realized that I have been using it and referring to it for years without knowing the name of the test...or that it even had a name.  And this experience felt much like what it feels like as I am writing my thesis right now.

I'm in this weird moment in my academic career where I know a bunch of critical theory, but it is all sort of floating around like flotsam and jetsam in my brain.  As readers of this blog know, I am really interested in questions of subjectivity, citizenship, affect, and emotions.  I think about this stuff a lot and I read a ton of texts on these subjects.  Yet, I don't necessarily know how to name these theories or perspectives.  I read something about abstract personhood and I'll nod my head and make a note and begin thinking about these concepts...and then, someone will talk about this theory by name, and I have no idea that it is the same thing because "theory" is bigger than these singular authors.  And in academia, I'm learning that it is too prosaic to start your book by saying something like "I'm a post-structuralist, and thus, I believe in x, y, z."  We readers are supposed to be well-versed enough in theory if we are reading said text to figure out what tradition the author is coming from, I guess. It's troubling for me right now.  The good news is that this is exactly what 6-7 years in a PhD program is meant to sort out for me!

But in the meantime, I find it increasingly frustrating that I don't just have a list of theories and an index that I can go to and search "abstract personhood" and identify three ways of looking at that question and the top five authorities on this question.  And this also means that my poor thesis readers are having a hard time following me because they keep trying to position me within a theoretical tradition and I keep doing this kind of unintentional bait and hook where I'm talking about one thing...like shame, for example...and then, I quickly stop drop and roll onto the next thing, like prosthetic emotions.  And um, well, let's just say that right now I'm realizing that this shipwreck (i.e. my thesis) needs a rescue mission.