The Hulu film Pride & Prejudice, Fire Island is a unique entry into a film genre that hasn’t seen much in the way of mainstream opportunity until more recently. A highly diverse cast of incredibly talented performers pushes this uplifting flick beyond expectations.
The Bechdel Test was created by cartoonist Alison Bechdel in the 1980s to determine what pieces of fiction in pop culture demonstrate a greater than average depiction of women. The test was conceived to bring writers, filmmakers, artists, and others to task with the intent to make sure at least two female characters are featured in the work of fiction, and that said female characters have discussions with one another that don't include talking about men. While many films and television series don't necessarily the test, the Bechdel Test was devised to call attention to gender inequality in works of fiction.
Recalling the Joel Kim Booster's Noah and Conrad Ricamora's Will) are seen in the film discussing the female protagonist in an Alice Munro novel, while Fire Island is primarily based on a Jane Austen novel.
Much of the controversy of Rosin's words hit home for many in the entertainment industry as it was viewed as possibly demeaning to a typically undervalued community of gay men and women. While the Bechdel Test is an important benchmark for storytellers, Fire Island's highly diverse cast of mostly queer Asian men and women in a mainstream film shouldn't be discounted because of a set of rules that were initially devised almost forty years ago. The demographics of Fire Island should be celebrated, as it took a romantic comedy and elevated it beyond the prototypical patriarchal society that most films tend to project.
It was very telling that Alison Bechdel contributed her two cents to this controversy, as it shut down the conversation before the firestorm grew larger than it needed to. The Bechdel Test was created to highlight the disproportion of men and women in works of fiction and the roles they play in those stories. The fact that Fire Island portrayed many of its main characters in complex situations that live outside the heteronormative white male-dominated world should be viewed as a step in the right direction for progressive filmmaking, rather than criticized for one person's viewpoint of perceived lack of equality.
