Monthly Archives: March 2014

The Bechdel Test

Recently I was indulging in my greatest time-wasting strategy (when I scroll down through Facebook and click on interesting Buzz Feed quizzes and cheesy Huffington Post articles), I came across a slightly less-cheesy post that introduced me to the Bechdel test. This test categorizes Hollywood movies based on how female characters interact with each other. In order for the movies to past the test, one or more female characters must speak to each other about something other than a man during the course of the film. You might think that most movies would past this simple test, yet out of the top 50 blockbuster movies of 2013, only 24 of them passed this test.

For larger image: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/03/hollywood-sexist-bechdel-test-vocativ_n_4536277.html

Yet, these 24 movies that did pass the test ended up gaining more money on a whole than those that did not. Exciting stuff, no?

I wasn’t surprised by the low number of movies that either under represent women in their movies, nor was I shocked that a lot of these movies don’t pass the test since their female characters only talk about a man. While I believe the Bechdel test is important, and that this study shows an interesting correlation between female representation and gross income from a movie, the test is worthy of critique due to its parsimonious basis.

Firstly, the Bechdel test rules out movies in which females do not have conversations with each other. While I understand that the basis for this criteria is to pass movies that represent more than one woman, allowing a broader representation of women to be shown, this doesn’t necessarily show that the females in the movies are not strong or complex in character. Just because they hold intelligent conversations with men and not each other should not rule the movie out of the equation. As Shannon Clarke writes for the website Lip:

“Films and shows about women navigating the maleness of their environments sometimes require them, for effect or historical accuracy, to underrepresent women. The first rule of the Bechdel test examines representation, but that is just quantitative. A significant female role can exist in a film that is overwhelmingly male in its casting.” http://lipmag.com/culture/strong-female-characters-separating-strength-from-the-bechdel-test/

An indie film I recently watched on Netflix, Sidewalls, would also not pass this test. This film focuses on just two characters, a man and a woman, and how they deal with depression, phobias, failed relationships, and much more. These two characters only meet at the end of the film, so during almost the entire film, the characters share their thoughts through voice-overs that only the audience can hear. When the woman performs her soliloquies (that, like that of the man’s, are rather complex and philosophical), is she not having a conversation with the audience? Just because another woman isn’t present to hear her out, this film which clearly transcends typical gender representation in film would not pass the Bechdel test.

Moving on, the basis of this test is found on the assumption that women cannot have meaningful conversations about men that in turn reflect the trials and liberties of being a woman. As Clarke points out, 12 Years a Slave would not pass this test because its female characters speak only about the males in their lives. Yet, the conversation between Patsy (Lupita Nyong’o, Best Supporting Actress of 2013) and Mistress Shaw is far from superficial. The two women speak about their white male owners, as well as the “psychological effects of sexual violence and the intersection of gender and race in America’s plantation system”. Yes, they are technically speaking about a man in this case. But does this conversation not only reflects wholly on the characters themselves, but women in general who have also been forced into events of sexual violence.

 

In addition, just because two women hold a conversation in a film does not make those characters deep in any sense. Take 10 Things I Hate About You (the film, not the gag-inducing TV show), the scene in which Chastity and Bianca talk about the difference between like and love.

Bianca: “You know, there’s a difference between like and love, because I like my Sketchers but I love my Prada backpack.”

Chastity: “But I love my Sketchers.”

Bianca: “That’s because you don’t have a Prada backpack.”

Chastity: “Oh..”

(Skip to 4:46)

While there are other scenes in which two females characters hold a powerful conversation (Bianca between her sister Kat later on), if there are films that pass the test based on conversations like this, then the Bechdel test is not fulfilling its own purpose of weeding out powerful female films from weak ones.

The Bechdel test leaves a lot to be desired, but at least it’s a step in the right direction. It brings attention to the male-dominated world of Hollywood, and it sheds light on the fact that there may be a correlation between the film’s gross income and its portrayal of two or more women holding a conversation about something other than a man. Critiquing the quality of this test is important; Sweden plans to integrate this test into their cinema rating system. I believe a far more complex test can and should be developed in order to determine if a movie poorly represents women or not.

Argentina 1980 vs. France 2012

As I mentioned before, my inspiration for participating in the Rotary exchange program was initially my mom. My mom decided to participate in this program in 1980 during her senior year of high school. She wanted to take a year off between high school and college to travel, so this was the perfect fit for her.

Back then, the program was a little bit different than what it has become today, so by comparing my mom’s experiences going abroad with my own, I’ll explore how different our years were but also how they were essentially very similar.

The first major difference was the country. My mom had learned German in high school, so naturally she wanted to visit Germany during her year abroad, or somewhere in Europe at least. She had to list her top 20 or so countries in order of preference, and she tells me that at least the top 10 countries were all in Europe. She ended up getting her 13th choice — Argentina.

At first she was really nervous to take on a South American country. She even considered dropping out of the program, but decided that she was ready to take on the challenge of learning an entirely different language in a very different place.

I, on the other hand, had it much easier. My first choice out of the 5 top countries I listed was France, and I got my first choice. I definitely felt lucky to get my first choice, but at the same time I was like my mom; I was looking for an adventure and knew I could find that in any country. Being familiar with the language right off the bat was definitely a plus however. I got to become closer with my host families quicker, and I had less trouble in school making friends since I could get by in French even during my first month there.

A picture I took during one of my last nights in France.

A picture I took during one of my last nights in France.

My mother’s experience with getting by in the language was an entirely different case. She tells me that since she knew next to no Spanish when she arrived in Argentina, and barely anyone knew English in her little town on the coast (called Pinamar), she felt very isolated during her 3 months there. Plus, it was a different time; there was no Facebook, no Skype, no cell phones for texting and snapchat. When she felt homesick, she couldn’t log on and talk to her friends and family back home instantly like I could. During her entire year there, she made about 4 phone calls to her parents, and wrote letters. I can’t even image how difficult that would have been!

Pinamar

Pinamar — vamos a la playa anyone?

While it may have taken my mom more time to become accustomed to the language and culture than it did me, she overcame the language barrier and by the end of the year was fluent in oral Spanish. She even came back with a Spanish accent! This never happened to me because I heard English at least once per day while I was in France; I either spoke English with my international friends, or I read it while surfing the internet at night. Since my mom was so isolated in a Spanish-speaking world, she had no choice but to immerse herself in the culture and embrace it. I also had to do this, but to a lesser extent.

Finally, a huge difference between my mom’s year abroad and mine was the educational setting we were placed in. My mom went to the public school there which was a miniscule building which housed grades K-12. After a few months, the teachers told my mother to stop attending classes since she wasn’t contributing anything by reading her books in the back of the class! This was completely different from my experience; I had to attend a Catholic high school Monday through Friday, and if the Rotary found out I skipped a class, I would be in deep trouble! I think I prefer my mom’s educational experience during her gap year…

Even though our experiences were completely different and occurred during very disparate times, in the end we still describe our gap years as incredible, and as if they never really happened at all. It just goes to show that it’s what you do and the effort you put into your gap year (or your travels in general) that makes it memorable, not where you go.

The Journal

One of the things I missed most while on exchange in France was having access to the painting materials I was used to using at home. I love painting on large canvases using acrylic and oil paints, and I wasn’t able to bring these with me, nor did I want to buy them in France. Instead, I decided to pour my artistic flow into a sketchbook/journal to document the details of my life in France.

My first sketches were completed before I left for France. One of my favorite sketches is the one I did of my Rotary blazer and the few pins I had before I left.

I was most inspired by one of my favorite illustrators, Qin Leng. http://qinleng.tumblr.com/

Once I got to France, I sometimes found myself with nothing to do after school but sleep. Instead of locking myself in my room the whole evening, I would pull out my sketchbook and sketch something that happened that day, or sketch a recent trip my host family and I had taken. I found that this was a much better way to pass the time, and it allowed me to be more social and integrate with my host family. I know they really enjoyed seeing my drawings develop, and they especially liked the caricatures I would do for them.

Even at school, I would work on my journal during study halls, art class, and sometimes even during other class subjects (especially English class!). My classmates became really interested in what I was doing; they’d frequently ask me to flip through the sketchbook, checking to see if I had finished any sketches since last they’d peered through it. In a way, this sketchbook helped me integrate into the class because I’d share my experiences with the French country with my class mates, and they liked to hear about what I thought about French people and life in general. It was a way to start a conversation, which is not always easy to do in a second language. Plus, I would scribble down sentences in both English and French, so before I finished the sketch with pen, I’d ask a classmate if there were any grammatical errors.

My sketchbook wasn’t only fun to look at for my host family and my classmates; I tried my best to take pictures of my work and post them on my Facebook page for my family and friends back home to see. I thought this would be a fun way for them to follow what I was up to in France, even if I only finished a sketch of an event months after it happened.

Yet, around February and March, my sketching started to slow down. As I gained stronger friendships, I spent less and less time on recording new experiences and instead started making new memories with my friends.

Even now, I feel that I remember the trips and days I documented through my sketchbook better than those I didn’t. Despite the fact that I took lots of pictures, through my sketchbook, I could more easily depict the emotions I was experiencing at certain times.

I’ve only finished the sketches up until March, so I still have a long way to go! Here are a few pictures of the sketches I completed while in France.

Having trouble packing

 

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Barcelona!

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The cathedral and old houses in the town in which I stayed, Bourges.