Impromptu crowd science and the mystery of the Bechdel-Wallace test movement

© 2016 Authors.We propose the concept of 'impromptu crowd science' to analyze the Bechdel-Wallace movement. We argue that the practice of using this test to evaluate movies generates a form of digitally distributed knowledge that reveals a challenging conceptual impasse. The current organization of the movement, mainly through blog and newspaper articles, quantitative analyses and wiki syntheses, does not encourage the formulation of theoretically innovative answers, remaining captive in a rhetorical style of balancing pros-and-cons. We propose that hybridizations between such impromptu crowd science and academic inquiries could stimulate crowd theorizing, and we extend this challenge as an invitation for HCI researchers.