The Bechdel, Russo, and Race Test: Oh My Venus – Season 1, Episode 16

Oh My Venus wrapped things up in episode 16. Young-Ho met Joo-Eun’s mother; Joo-Eun met Young-Ho’s family and she became pregnant with twins; Joon-Sung finally reciprocated Yi-Jin’s feelings; Ji-Woong joined the marines; and Soo-Jin and Woo-Sik reunited.

The Bechdel, Russo, and Race Test

Episode 16 did not pass the Russo test but it did pass the Bechdel and race test.

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Joo-Eun reveals that she is pregnant.

Episode 16 did not pass the Russo test, and the episode did not pass this test because there were no LGBTI characters in episode 16. The episode did, however, pass the Bechdel and race test.

Episode 16 passed the Bechdel test because of the couple of times that named women talked to each other in episode 16, there were two instances where men weren’t mentioned (e.g., Hyun-Jung informed Joo-Eun that a female client wanted to speak with her and Chairwoman Lee told Joo-Eun that her song was hilarious). Episode 16 (easily) passed the race test because the entire cast was Asian and none of the characters ever mentioned White people.

*The Bechdel test entails three requirements:
1. It has to have at least two (named) women in it
2. Who talk to each other
3. About something besides a man

**The Vito Russo test entails three requirements:
1. The show contains a character that is identifiably lesbian, gay, bisexual, intersex and/or transgender
2. The character must not be solely or predominately defined by her sexual orientation, gender identity and/or as being intersex
3.The character must be tied into the plot in such a way that her removal would have a significant effect

***The race or people of color (POC) test has three requirements:
1. It has two people of color in it
2. Who talk to each other
3. About something other than a White person

****Just because a show passes the Bechdel, Russo and race test does not mean that it is not sexist, heterosexist, racist and/or cissexist, etc. The Bechdel, Russo and race test is only a bare minimum qualifier for the representation of LGBTI individuals, women and people of color in television. The failure to pass these tests also does not identify whether the central character was a woman, a person of color or a LGBTQI individual and it does not dictate the quality of the show.