My brother reminded me of the Bechdel test of women in movies. You can watch this short video...
or read the three rules:
1. Are there two or more women in it, with names?
2. Do they talk to each other?
3. About something other than men?
So here I've tried to randomly submit some of my fave movies to the test...
- State and Main passes the test (Annie says hi to all the women in the town by name, re. the play, and go ye huskies!)
- Zoolander passes, because Katinka and Matilda trade insults during fight scenes.
- Henry V might pass... the Princess is learning English from her maid, albeit because of the probability of marrying Henry.
- Joy Luck Club passes with flying colours
- Sense and Sensibility - easily
- American Splendor passes - his wife and daughter
- Room With a View - pass - there are lots of ladies, talking about views and flowers and travel
- Sound of Music - big pass
- Persuasion - pass
- The Harry Potters probably pass because there are named female teachers teaching named female students
- Importance of Being Earnest, An Ideal Husband - both fails
- Seven Brides for Seven Brothers - fail, even though there's lots of women with names - also Evita, maybe Oklahoma, Guys and Dolls,
- Purple Rain - fail
- A Christmas Carol - fail, there's few women at all
- Clash of the Titans probably fails because while there are lots of named women talking to each other, they're generally talking about Calibos, Zeus, or Harry Hamlin.
- The old Star Wars movies of course fail. The newer ones have some talk between Padme and her named guards.
- Not sure about Pride and Prejudice, because the sisters do talk a lot about boys with each other. And indeed many if not most romantic comedies would fail because the Best Friend is only there in order to talk about the romance.
- I doubt Hot Fuzz passes, and probably Sean of the Dead doesn't (but it's a mixed group of men and women at the end fighting off zombies, so they might talk)
Jesus Christ Superstar = epic fail (let's face it, the New Testament is epic fail. Unless you consider Jesus to be non-gendered, since *he* is god)
- Galaxy Quest - no pass (but then it couldn't because it was modeled on these TV shows with no women on them)
- Restoration - fail, it's all about the main male protagonist
- Marx Brothers movies - fail (maybe some tiny passes in there)
- James Bond movies - fail of course, except where there's a female baddie--she might threaten the Bond sidekick after all
Series - whether they pass in general (many times)
- Cranford = win au boute
- A-Team = fail
- Vicar of Dibley - big win
- Jeeves and Wooster = fail
- Spaced = pass
- Dr Katz - mostly fail, though there are some conversations between Laura and the clients, Eg. about Joyce Behar's sweater
- Ugle Betty - supa pass
- House - massive massive fail... I can't imagine anyone, male or female, talking about anything other than House (which is why this show is not really on my faves list... just a funny example)
- Most Charles Dickens series should pass because there are zillions of talkative characters, all named, so the ladies must cross paths occasionally without talking about men
- Miss Marple mysteries - big win, but less so for the Poirot mysteries (actually the mystery genre in general is packed with both female authors and female characters)
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer - pass
- entourage - technically a pass because the wives and girlfriends sometimes meet and exchange small talk, but in spirit --> it's a boys club
- Welcome Back Kotter - fail
- West Wing - should pass
- MASH - pass
Anyone care to test one of their faves? I know Swissgirl's Golden Girls would majorly pass.
4 comments:
Christmas Carol might just pass... there's the scene where Mrs. Dilbert the housekeeper is at the pawn shop and she and the cook? or skullery maid (whomever) interact over who goes first and who stole what ... and Mrs. Cratchett and her daughters? ... And the other female characters like Fran the sister and even the fiancee, may not talk to other women, but they do talk about much more than "men." ... So I'm giving Christmas Carol a pass ;-)
It would be interesting to adapt this rule to other groups.. like blacks, native Indians, .... etc... YUP it's pretty much a white male world in celluloid (okay it's not really celluloid anymore ...)
Oh you're totally right! I'm pretty sure the other woman is named in that scene (they greet her) and they exchange some pleasantries before talking about Scrooge.
Most of the shows and movies that I love do not pass (And yet, they do have great female characters, but they tend to be kinda male-centered). Sons of Anarchy and Breaking Bad definitely don't pass.
I think the test is more effective if the rule is more about women having conversations with each other about something other than *romantic* relationships with men.
The rule as it stands reflects whether there are a lot of complex female characters being portrayed in movies. That is, it easily reflects whether there is a female character who is key, who influences others, who's a Mover & Shaker. And at the same time reflects whether there are enough female side characters to interact with her.
A show like Buffy is so "pass" because you don't just have one great female character, but a variety of female characters, good and bad, minor and major. But if you applied the Bechdel test to representation of minorities, it would do terribly, cause most of the important/key characters are white.
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