Frank Miller test

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It began here. It refers to the original Miller Test and also to the Shortpacked take on Frank Miller. It is applied to male sci-fi and fantasy writers, and it goes like this:


If the proportion of female sex workers to neutrally presented female people in his story is above 1:1, he fails.


Failure is an indication that the writer is suffering from a debilitating obsession with whores, and may be assuming that all women can be represented by sex workers.


Notable Failures

Arguable failures

  • Terry Pratchett - Night Watch - Includes one confirmed sex-worker (Rosie Palm); one probable sex-worker (Madam); non-sex-workers (Sandra, Cherry Littlebottom, [[Sybil Vimes]). The agony Aunts are involved but are not themselves prostitutes, and other tertiary characters do not necessarily appear to be involved with prostitution. However, since Night Watch is something of a pastiche of Les Miserables (in which prostitution plays a visible and plot relevant part), the presence of sex workers as characters is arguably not an entirely bad sign.

See also

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