Never heard of the Bechdel Test?
Essentially, it’s a way of measuring gender bias in movies, TV, books and any type of fictional media. It was developed by Alison Bechdel, who wrote it up in her comic strip called “Dykes to Watch Out For” in 1985.
It includes just three very minimal criteria:
- The movie has at least two named women characters
- The women have a conversation with each other
- The women talk about something besides a man
There are a surprising number of movies, even ones we all love, that downright fail this test.
Why does it matter?
The Bechdel Test is critical because it illustrates how ridiculously skewed the movie industry is towards the male narrative. Rarely are there strong female voices—or even weak ones. It has become more of a trend lately (with movies like Divergent and Hunger Games), but the industry is still and traditionally has been very male-centric. Men in movies talk about everything from their family drama to politics to what music they like, while women tend to be heard discussing one thing and one thing only: men.
It is important to say however that Bechdel isn’t a measure for whether or not a movie is feminist and whether or not it is reinforcing gender stereotypes. It isn’t that black and white; there could be female characters that have a conversation, yet they could still be objectified damsels in distress, or any number of cliche roles women are so often given in movies. So use it as a way to look at gender representation in film and to start a conversation, not a sole test of feminism.
That being said, let’s see how many of this year’s Oscar Best Picture nominees pass.
Passes
“The Martian,” “Mad Max: Fury Road,” “Brooklyn,” “Room”
Failures
“The Big Short,” “Bridge of Spies,” “The Revenant”
So next time you’re thinking about or critiquing a movie, take this test into account. Think about how women are represented. Hopefully one day, if we keep talking about this, all movies will pass with flying colors and give women’s stories equal screen time to men’s.