Eventually I gave up on the Mary Sue test, the Sexy Lamp test et al and invented a new one I like to call the “Fuck It” Test: can your female character be said to have had a positive effect on anyone, anywhere? If so, she’s a good female character, fuck it.
Wow look they’re still tripping on a bar so low it’s the fucking floor HOW IS THIS HARD? representation matters (x)
Alright, what’s your idea?
Representation does matter, obviously, but at the same time I don’t think trying to remove someone’s – anyone’s – favourite character under the guise of ‘she’s just a sexy lamp! Find a better role model!’ or whatnot is going to help. If a particular character has a good effect on someone, who am I, or anyone, to take that off them?
I wasn’t disparaging your “fuck it” test… My reaction was more to the fact that representation in media STILL falls flat on its face when asked if it could pass the “fuck it” test.
(Ah, sorry. That’ll teach me to jump to conclusions.)
I kinda elaborated on the original post to explain that hopefully a time will come when we don’t need a bar at all – until then I’m totally open to ideas (seriously. I’m a would-be writer, I have a massive stake in this) – but I really hope that more media passes a ‘positive effect’ test than we realise, even if it’s just (well, I say ‘just’) little girls saying ‘Mum, I want to be a doctor like Martha’. With the world what it is today, they need all the help they can get…