The Bechdel Test

[shipper hannah]

The Bechdel Test (aka The Mo Movie Measure) for women in movies is a test of gender bias in films (or television series, potentially). It actually originated in a comic strip.

To pass the test, a film must meet the following requirements:

1. It has to have at least two women in it
2. Who talk to each other,
3. About something other than a man.

The women must be named characters, for the sake of practicality.

The test can also be adapted to apply to race (e.g. change women to ethnic minority characters and man to a white person).

What movies can you think of? Do they pass the Bechdel test? What about the modified Bechdel test?

[shipper hannah]

Interestingly, none of Joss Whedon's tv shows pass the racial Bechdel test IIRC.

[4thDoctor]

So what?

[Quizziard]

Interestingly, none of Joss Whedon's tv shows pass the racial Bechdel test IIRC.

Nor any Sherlock Holmes movies... relevance?

[shipper hannah]

Nor any Sherlock Holmes movies... relevance?

It's the patterns that's the problem.

[shipper hannah]

So what?

An awful lot of films seem to think women aren't worth portraying except in relation to men. Hollywood frequently seems to think that both male and female audiences are generally uninterested in female characters except in the context of romance with a male character. Less so now than when the test was created, but the problem is so many movies still fail the test. That's not to say that a film that doesn't pass the test is misogynistic, or vice versa - a film could have very good reason for not passing it. It's the pattern that's the problem.

[4thDoctor]

4thDoctorrlol.gif

[SoulReaver]

To pass the test, a film must meet the following requirements:

1. It has to have at least two women in it
2. Who talk to each other,
3. About something other than a man.

that would make for one boring movie :/

[Ben 'Teal'c would WIN!!' Noble]

Seeing as women make up half the population you would two talking to each other wouldn't be that hard

[s09119]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]32603[/ATTACH]

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y16...7/machism4.jpg

...what?

that would make for one boring movie :/

I don't think the implication is that's all that's happening in the movie, it just needs to happen at some point. It's more a test to demonstrate that women/minority characters are used more for token purposes, that's how I read it anyway.

[The Flyattractor]

that would make for one boring movie :/

Yeah. And there called CHICK FLICKS!

And the even more DREADED movie.....THE BROMANCE!


shudder horror shudder.

[LoneStar1836]

Resident Evil movies?

[The Flyattractor]

Your getting close

[shipper hannah]

[color=limegreen][b]Yeah. And there called CHICK FLICKS!

Yeah, like ALIEN.

Chick flicks seem to involve a lot of women talking about men, anyway.

[Ukko]

Yeah, like ALIEN.

Chick flicks seem to involve a lot of women talking about men, anyway.

Because chick flicks tend to be romantic comedies (where the men also just talk about the women). It wouldnt make much sense if the women spent the movie chatting about the causes of Somalian piracy or coconuts.