Comments on: The Bechdel Test for Women in Movies

By: The Bechdel Test | Art History 186p, Fall 2011

The Bechdel Test | Art History 186p, Fall 2011 — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 20:39:04 +0000

[...] from Feminist Fatale: http://www.feministfatale.com/2010/03/the-bechdel-test-for-women-in-movies/ This entry was posted in Uncategorized by ankwocha. Bookmark the [...]

By: vespa

vespa — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 17:47:38 +0000

@AP, Death Proof passes the reverse Bechdel Test as far as I’m aware. After Stuntman Mike’s first killer crash, Sheriff Earl McGraw (a recurring character in several Tarantino films) discusses the driver’s motives with his son, Edgar. Arguably, they’re still talking about the women who were killed, but after a certain point the conversation focuses on Mike rather than his victims.

By: AP²

AP² — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 04:16:12 +0000

I’m not sure, but I think Death Proof may fail the reverse Bechdel test. It only has three male characters and I don’t think they ever talk to each other.
And Vera Drake, definitively. Even if there are men talking to each other, it’s about her.
Oh, and probably Chicago too.

By: Tony

Tony — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 04:26:43 +0000

Tyler, I agree that a lot of those male themed movies might not be expected to pass the test (such as war movies, prison movies, etc.), but that doesn’t mean they can’t. The effect of war on women can make for an interesting story, for example, just look at Gone With the Wind. And as a reader pointed out above, Pulp Fiction passed the test, it is a crime movie. That said, if a crime/war movie doesn’t pass the test, it’s understandable. I think it would be interesting to see which movies didn’t pass the reverse Bechdel test (men talking to each other). I can’t think of anything off the top of my head. Mona Lisa’s Smile?

By: Tyler

Tyler — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 03:32:41 +0000

I agree that it’s undesirable for Hollywood to perpetuate the idea that only men can “drive the plot” so to speak, but you can’t possibly apply this test to movies like Braveheart and Gladiator – They’re portraying societies where women really were, for the most part, ineffectual. The filmmakers could have easily inserted a scene with two women talking to one another, but what about? War and politics were male endeavors at the time.

The test doesn’t apply to many films on this list. A film about prison is going to have inherently few women – Most inmates are male (don’t know about correctional workers). Austin Powers is about womanizing and the objectification of women, so it’s unreasonable to expect it to pass. Wall-E is about robots, but moreover features only two (if that) main characters and zero real supporting characters, so the probability that two men would talk to one another is low, let alone two women.

Any crime movie can’t heavily feature women, so Reservoir Dogs is out too. I’ll give you a pass on the Bourne movies since it might under-represent women in the CIA.

Milk is a true story, and most of the major players in real life were men, so the prominence of female characters is obviously going to be limited both by what really happened and their importance to the real-life situation.

Most of the crappy blockbusters certainly fail the test though. Particularly troubling are movies aimed at children, like Toy Story – If the youth are continually bombarded with stories where women are little more than a love interest, we’re not making any progress.

By: CoffeeSpoons

CoffeeSpoons — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:37:51 +0000

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off also passes the test- there are multiple women in the movie with names- Jeanie Bueller, Sloane Peterson, Katie Bueller, Grace, Florence Sparrow (the nurse), and Simone Adamly, to name a few- and they have interactions with each other that do not involve talking about a man. For example, Jeanie talks to Katie about how she feels mistreated. Florence has a conversation with Sloane about how her grandmother is dead. Although many of these conversations indirectly include Ferris, they are not “about a man”. Makes me wonder how many of the other movies listed actually pass the test.

By: Joe Valdez

Joe Valdez — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 19:01:29 +0000

Thanks for this video, Anita. I stumbled onto your website searching for "Girl Power" movies to devote my blog to next month. While no one can seem to agree on what feminism is, or whether Nine to Five or G.I. Jane are feminist movies or not, the Bechdel Test can measure whether a movie acknowledges women or for whatever reason, ignores them. Lots of great films flunk this test. A lot of pap like Sex and the City 2 passes with flying colors. But it's fascinating to realize how few movies are willing or able to feature two women talking about something other than men.

By: TikiTemple

TikiTemple — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 19:03:01 +0000

It’s a fair point, but it’s easy to do this with any specified group. Consider what I call the “Triple N Test” for Asian males.

The blockbuster passes the test if a major Asian male character does not fit into any of the following categories:

Ninja – (References to martial arts, swords, gross stereotypes)
Nerd – (Can’t get a girl, socially hopeless, geeky, etc.)
Naughty – (Villain, or portrayal as immoral outsider)

Sounds fair, right? But just like the Bechdel test, it’s difficult to find a Blockbuster that passes without question.

By: Nahida

Nahida — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 00:27:37 +0000

Wall-E? Unfair.

I protested at Shriek, but despite the fact that there is a strong female in the movie, the men in that movie do interact with each other and on much more interesting topics, which results in unbalanced character depth.

By: Ed

Ed — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 22:50:38 +0000

While I can understand wanting more women and more womanly interests portrayed in films, I have to ask if this is an issue of people against women, or rather people writing what they know? certainly the majority of script writers seem to be male. If a male scriptwriter tried and failed to portray a feminine conversations accurately, wouldn’t that show up somewhere on the feminist radar?