Harkness Test
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About
Harkness Test refers to a hypothetical set of guidelines in which it would be permissible to have sexual intercourse with a fictional, non-human creature. The criteria are: "Does this character have human intelligence (or greater)?", "Can it talk or otherwise communicate with language?", and "Is it of sexual maturity for its species?" The list is named after Jack Harkness, a character in Doctor Who and Torchwood who displays sexual attraction to species human and non-human alike in the show. The guidelines have been edited into a graphic which itself became an exploitable as people debated the sexual eligibility of different fictional characters.
Origin
The term is inspired by Jack Harkness, a Doctor Who character from the ninth and tenth doctor arcs of the show who is from the 51st century and is considered omnisexual, flirting with multiple non-human creatures across the course of the series.[1]
The earliest known post featuring the Harkness Test graphic was posted on Furaffinity[2] on January 6th, 2013 by user BeakieHelmet, gaining just over 800 views. Much less than the second known earliest post on Imgur[3] February 5th, 2013 by user MeloDoggo3928, gaining over 23,000 views.
Spread
On February 18th, 2013 a My Little Pony edit was posted on Derpibooru[4] by Background Pony #7F77 (shown below, left). On March 28th, the original image was posted to /r/scifi,[5] gaining over 1,400 points. Another My Little Pony edit was posted to Derpibooru[6] by user NiggoslavKrawczyk on August 18th, 2013 (shown below, right).
Other exploitable edits include a Zootopia edit posted by Funnyjunk user chiyoshi[7] that gained over 390 points (shown below, left). On Tumblr,[8] user houshou posted a Kantai Collection edit that gained over 2,100 notes (shown below, right).
The term saw a surge in popularity when it was mentioned in a February 4th, 2019 Plague of Gripes video implying Pokémon were sexually active partners, gaining over 2.4 million views.
Various Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1] Doctor Who Wiki – Jack Harkness
[2] Furaffinity-Harkness Test
[3] Imgur – HISS GRONK!
[4] Derpibooru – MLP Harkness
[6] Derpibooru – Gronk gronk
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