Saw a conversation on reddit *YIKES* about the bechdel test and wanted to add my two cents (idk if im using that right im not american)
I feel like the idea that the bechdel test is stupid or meaningless is just an excuse for men to not have to question how they view and write women in media. As far as I'm aware no one actually thinks if something doesn't pass the bechdel test that it is immediately very misogynistic, it just means that we should question why it doesn't pass such a simple litmus test and why the fact that it doesn't pass is likely not a good thing.
It's a conversation starter to me at least?
I kept thinking that the female characters in HXH were low key awful (for the most part) and started to wonder if it even passed the bechdel test at all which i still can't be sure about. This thought lead me to reddit which foolish and heinous conversation threads of the past and present awaited me, and I was frustrated to see threads heavily glazing hxh's mangaka to a point that felt silly. I love hxh but of all the criticisms you could make poorly written women would be the easiest case in my opinion; even aside from the fact it probably doesn't pass the bechdel test the majority of the women in the show are either weak in more ways than one, oversexualised, plot devices or just not as well developed as the men in general. I genuinely could go into specifics but I can't be bothered rn. And unfortunately this is a pattern that I see in a lot of anime and other media too, I wish it was unique to hxh but it's not.
It's almost sad to see that these types of discussions have not really evolved that much even in 2026, I feel like it would be so easy to change the way we talked about women in media instead of just accepting the fact that because it's written by a man he has a pass to write women poorly because "it could be worse" or "he doesn't know any better"
