In our daily lives, we are bombarded with media—news broadcasts, advertisements, movies, TV shows, and even articles like this one—and analyzing the way that that media presents its information is important to being able to navigate towards better sources. In more recent years, there has been a push towards examining representation. How well does a source represent a group of people? Does it rely on stereotypes, or diminish a minority group’s importance?
When it comes to examining gender representation, the most well known of the tests is the Bechdel-Wallace Test, also known simply as the Bechdel Test. Developed by the cartoonist Alison Bechdel in her comic strip, Dykes to Watch Out For, she outlines the simple rules of the test: a movie has to have (1) at least two women in it (2) who talk to each other (3) about something besides a man. It’s a simple test, yet it’s astounding how few movies and TV shows pass it. It’s also important to note that, while the test only mentions women interacting, Bechdel had originally written the comic as “a little lesbian joke”—a nod towards the difficulty of seeing women simply having conversations with other women, let alone seeing lesbian representation in mainstream media. More movies and TV shows have passed the test in recent years, yet it’s still troubling to see large production-value movies still failing such a simple test. It’s even more troubling to note that some movies would have passed the test, yet cut scenes where women interacted with one another. For example, the movie Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice doesn’t pass the Bechdel Test, yet its Ultimate Edition extended cut passes.
“The Rule” by Alison Bechdel (1985)—the strip that created and popularized the Bechdel test.
The Bechdel Test isn’t the only test used to examine the way that media portrays women. The Finkbeiner Test was developed to examine the way that women are discussed in scientific media. It has more criteria than the Bechdel Test, requiring that an article about a female scientist not include: “(1) that she’s a woman, (2) her husband’s job, (3) her childcare arrangements, (4) how she nurtures her underlings, (5) how she was taken aback by the competitiveness in her field, (6) how she is a role model for other women, (7) how she’s the first woman to…”.
This test is specifically aimed at examining the ways that female scientists are described differently than their male counterparts and is somewhat controversial in its last two points. The intent of the Finkbeiner Test is to write about female scientists the same way that one would write about male scientists—with largely no regard to personal and family life, and an extensive focus on their accomplishments. Even the last point, that an article shouldn’t mention that a female scientist was the first woman to accomplish something, supports this goal despite being more controversial, as “being the first woman” often says more about the prejudice of those in charge than the skill of the scientist that the article is about. Ann Finkbeiner, the journalist whose stance on writing about women in science inspired this test, elaborated on this idea, saying that it’s “not ok to turn a story about a scientist’s professional life into one about her personal life or her gender roles. What’s especially problematic is to frame the story, ‘and the most remarkable thing is that she accomplished all of this while being a woman!’”
The Finkbeiner Test has been cited in reaction to sub-par profiles of female scientists, most prominently in the backlash against the New York Times’ obituary for the brilliant rocket scientist Yvonne Brill. The Times, rather than opening with a discussion on Brill’s inventions and how they revolutionized rocket science, began her obituary with the words, “She made a mean beef stroganoff, followed her husband from job to job and took eight years off from work to raise three children. ‘The world’s best mom’, her son Matthew said.” It shouldn’t have been rocket science to acknowledge her genius.
In addition to the Bechdel and Finkbeiner Tests, there is also the Mako Mori Test. Named after the singular important female character in the monster-fighting film Pacific Rim, the test asks whether or not a female character’s narrative arc is about supporting a male character’s story. The Mako Mori test stemmed from fans’ critiques of the movie’s inability to pass the Bechdel Test, yet terrific success in creating and developing the character of Mako Mori, who remained independent and unsexualized in the film. It is meant to stand alongside the Bechdel Test and examine whether or not a film with a limited female cast directs the attention towards the female characters’ storylines, or away from it.
Similar to the Mako Mori Test is comic book writer Kelly Sue DeConnick’s “Sexy Lamp Test.” This test is simple: can you take out a female character and replace them with a sexy lamp? Aimed at pointing out that women need to be characters, not just plot devices or hypersexualized objects, this test is also intended to complement the Bechdel Test. This test, along with the Mako Mori Test, is important to quantify how feminist a film is. A movie that leans heavily on stereotypes to characterize its female characters can still pass the Bechdel Test but could fail the Sexy Lamp and Mako Mori Tests. Take the example of the Marvel movie, The Avengers. The movie doesn’t pass the Bechdel Test, yet Black Widow is integral to the progress of the film. If you attempted to replace her with a sexy lamp, a lot of events in the movie would simply not have happened. On the opposite side of the spectrum, replacing Bella in the Twilight films with a sexy lamp is more feasible. Her character arc is more about her male love interest(s) than it is about herself, which means that the film fails the Mako Mori Test as well.
The “sexy lamp” from the film, A Christmas Story (1983). AKA, Daisy Buchanan in every adaptation of The Great Gatsby.
Representation for women in the media has gotten better over the years, in part due to the popularization of the Bechdel Test and the development of its derivative tests, though there is still significant room for improvement. Increasing lesbian representation in the media (the original catalyst for the development of the Bechdel Test) still remains an objective, especially in light of the fact that killing off lesbian characters has become a rather common trope (see: Dead Lesbian Syndrome). From a personal perspective, I think that keeping these tests in mind when consuming media is important. Knowing that a movie doesn’t pass the Bechdel Test will most likely not keep me from enjoying it, but discovering that the movie’s female characters don’t pass the Sexy Lamp Test will definitely make me frustrated with it. Reading a book where a strong, female character gives up an important personal goal just for a male love interest is going to probably make me burn said book.
But all of that is not to say that you can’t enjoy a movie that doesn’t have ideal representation. I’ve seen John Wick about 5 times and still enjoy it, and that movie miserably fails the Bechdel Test. Twilight, even despite not holding up to the Mako Mori Test, can absolutely be your favorite movie. These tests don’t exist to spoil things you enjoy, but rather to make you aware of the areas where they may fall short, and help you gain a better understanding of the properties of the media that you’re consuming. By simply being more aware of whether or not our favorite movies and TV shows properly represent women, we can take a critical look at the types of messages we may be receiving from them and choose not only how seriously to take those messages, but also whether or not they may be damaging to receive.