Bechdel test
What is the Bechdel test? It’s a way of assessing how often women are excluded from movies and how centered their roles are around men.
It originated in Alison Bechdels 1985 comic “Dykes to watch out for”. In the comic 2 women are having a conversation and one mentions her ‘rules’ for seeing a movie.
To pass the test a movie must:
Have two women
They must have a conversation
The conversation must be about something other than a man.
Despite the simplicity of the test, numerous major movies fail the test. This includes movies such as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows II, baywatch (but like are we surprised about that?), Deadpool 2 and the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Although the Bechdel test does fail to measure other important issues and has problems of its own.
The test doesn’t assess the following:
If the women portrayed are complex characters or just serve as a catalyst for male stories. ie. getting pregnant, dying to set up a male protagonists story (American Assassin) or to cause problems for the male protagonist. It doesn’t asses how central and important the females role is towards the plot.
The diversity behind the scenes !! In 2016, the top 50 box office movies were examined and not one have a onset crew consisting of 50% women. (The closet to that number was Bad Moms). ‘The Conjuring 2’, which does pass the Bechdel test, had a 90% male onset crew. WOMEN BEHIND THE SCENES ARE IMPORTANT !!!!
It doesn’t take into account other marginalised groups. This is important because the women who are being portrayed are majority white, cisgender, heterosexual able bodied women. MORE DIVERSE REPRESENTATION PLEASE !!!!
So all in all the Bechdel test isnt really the most effective but it has triggered much needed conversations and the development of other tests. For example, the DuVernay test asses the representation of POC. To pass it, a film must have POC who have fully realised life’s instead of serve as scenery in a white story. Similarly, the Vito Russo test assess the LGBT+ representation. To pass it, a film must have an identifiably LGBT+ character that is not solely or predominantly defined by their sexual orientation or gender identity.
WE NEED TO CONTINUOUSLY HOLD THE FILM INDUSTRY ACCOUNTABLE !!!!
REPRESENTATION MATTERS !!!