Skeleton Architecture

Have you heard about the Bechdel test? Brought to our attention by Alison Bechdel, the awesome American cartoonist (check out her website here ), is a blunt instrument tool to look at the sexism of ommission in films.  But you can use it for any sort of story. The Bechdel test is a pass or fail test.  You need to ask yourself these questions about the film: Are there two (named) women in it? Do they talk to each other? About something other than a man? If you get through to the end of those questions with a YES, then the film has passed the Bechdel test.  If you don't, then it has failed. The test, as I said, is a blunt instrument.  A film will pass if two named women have one conversation about shopping for puppies (giggle), and will fail if two unnamed superheroines kick butt across America, constantly discussing feminist theory.  But blunt instruments are useful.  Hammers are blunt instruments. So what fails the test?  Lots of ...

I know it's not a popular work of art, but this morning on the blogosphere I came across Tracey Emin's 1995 work of art, Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963-1995, otherwise known as 'the tent'.  Not the real one, of course.  That burnt down in 2004.  Just pictures. I've popped some pictures here (taken from Wikipedia), so you know what I'm talking about, although they're not my pictures, so I hope Ms Emin and, indeed, the photographer, don't mind. Lots of people have criticised Tracey's tent, which is harsh, if you ask me, because it's an incredibly well crafted and put together piece, and it's thought provoking too. One of the thoughts the tent has provoked in people is 'blimey, she's slept with a lot of people'.  There are two points to note on this issue: The people whose names are inside the tent are all the people she's ever slept with.   So her Granny is in, while a guy she had sex with in a field (if such a thi...