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.

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