The Bechdel Test is a test for whether a movie contains: Two named female characters, who talk to each other, about something besides a man. The Bechdel (pronounced beck-dell) Test was first created in 1985 by cartoonist Allison Bechdel. These 11 iconic films, including "To All the Boys I've Loved Before" and "Mean Girls," pass with flying colors. We all play a part in creating a more equitable and just workplace and world. But it easily passed the Bechdel test, focusing on their badass careers saving an entire CITY and their friendships. And, sure, maybe its not realistic to have female characters in historically accurate movies set on ships in the 18th century, such as 2003sMaster and Commander with Russell Crowe, which features zero females. And this is despite the fact that Cate Blanchett is Liv Tyler's grandmother in the film, so it would have been completely possible for them to schedule some sort of visit together to say goodbye in case Middle Earth went down in flames! Marvel Studios. But there's no back-and-forth dialogue that actually amounts to a conversation. Starring the super brilliant Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Michael Burnam, she was raised by Vulcans, though is human, so shes a fascinating character to watch. When Ive seen people discussing the Bechdel test with regard to television, theyre usually talking about individual episodes and not the series as a whole. Please know that these are only a portion of the new television series passing the test. The Bechdel Test is a way of evaluating the representation of women in film. Sam Loveridge. Law & Order in the early seasons wouldnt have, with no starring female cast members. Code, or contact the Council, at www.presscouncil.ie, The series based on Robert Jordans epic series begins with the premise of a world ruled by women who have to deal with a lot of very bad men. Despite having two kickass female characters who are named, Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) a.k.a. supports the work of the Press Council of Ireland and the Office of the Press Alison Brie's Ruth . A lot of episodes do pass, but not as many as youd think, and only barely. The movie: When Princesses Elsa and Annas parents die, Elsa must become Queen, but during her coronation party everyone finds out that shes been secretly hiding powers (which she can use to freeze anything) all this time. Theyre flawed, complicated, and sometimes make horrible decisions. No, its not a T.V cooking show where Mary Berry judgesthe bestbechamel sauce for a lasagna, although that does sound like delicious competition Id wana be a judge on. Broad City created by Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson super modern and funny. Holdo a total, er, force (RIP). (Episode III does still fail, though. Despite having an array of fierce and funny female characters, the last movie of the Harry Potter installments disappointingly doesn't feature a single conversation between the women. Wrong. How it passes: The two leads, and indeed the majority of the cast, are women and the only time they really talk about men is when they briefly explain their crimes or discuss trying to get Geres Billy Flynn to represent them. She talks to her father, her boyfriend, the security guard at her fathers bankand not a single woman. The Bechdel test ( / bkdl / BEK-dl) [1] is a measure of the representation of women in film (and, by extension, in fiction in general). Enter the Bechdel Test, which was created in 1985 by cartoonist Alison Bechdel in a now-famous comic strip.Essentially, the Bechdel Test is a metric which determines whether a movie or TV series pays ample attention to its women characters. SuperJail, unless JailBot is female. The best part about Girls is that the characters arent that likable. Seriously, in the entire 10-hour trilogy, no two female characters ever actually speak to each other. One of the biggest movies of the 21st century features no dialogue between two named female characters. Disney Movies That Don't Pass the Bechdel Test Pinnochio Dumbo Bambi Lady and the Tramp The Sword in the Stone The Jungle Book The Fox and the Hound The Great Mouse Detective Oliver & Company Aladdin The Lion King A Goofy Movie The Hunchback of Notre Dame 2022 Galvanized Media. Couldn't have used all that time to write in a conversation between two female characters that wasn't Neytiri and her mother discussing Jake, about, I don't know - like the fact that their whole planet was under threat of being destroyed? Do those bacta tanks grow babies,too? Oh and hey, Meryl Streep is going to be in Season 2. Were there any women on F-Troop aside from Wrangler Jane? Where this show shines with regard to the Bechdel test is her relationship with her first captain Philippa Georgiou, and then further on with Captain Tilly. The Bechdel test is named after Alison Bechdel who introduced the concept as part of her Dykes to Watch Out For comic series in 1985, but she attributes it to her friend Liz Wallace, who attributed it to Virginia Woolf. Seinfeld, Frasier, and The Office have more male than female main characters, so inevitably there are many more male-male than female-female conversations. The movie: The all-singing, all-dancing movie adaptation of the stage musical Chicago (opens in new tab) sees Rene Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Richard Gere sing their hearts out as two female jazz stars/murderesses and the amoral lawyer trying to get them off. She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. To pass the test, a film must have: 1) Two female characters (some variations of the test say that they must have names, which is fair I think) 2) Who talk to each other. advertising. 2020, however, has already been a promising year for Bechdel Test-passing hits. TV Show Recaps; TV Reviews; TV Lists; TV News & Trailers; TV Features; The L Word; The L Word: Generation Q; . Of course, people watch movies for the simple pleasure that the story brings. It sounds simple,. But, even though this movie passes the Bechdel Test, it doesn't pass the Dangerous Bear Trope Test. Fox Searchlight Pictures How it passes: Its easy to see how Bridesmaids (opens in new tab) passes the Bechdel Test - all the main characters are women and they talk about almost everything but men - but on the surface, it doesnt seem that female positive. Don't get too bogged down in the requirements of the Bechdel Test test though because even if you're not sure what it means, every film on this list is a great movie in its own right, so you won't be disappointed. Absolutely. Grace and FrankieHow often do we get to see older women rise up against adversity with a whole lot of laughter and a whole lot of love? Grace and Frankie A lot of Hollywood films fail this test miserably and portray women in a sexist and unfair way. Were trying to be conscious of not just meeting this bar. Most of them fail, even ones full of female characters. Bath None of the women in the movie ever talk to each other. The movie: This dystopian movie paints a bleak picture of a future where humanity has lost the ability to reproduce. Younger is a marathon-worthy series about a fortysomething who pretends to be in her twenties in order to break back into publishing. Movies that pass the Bechdel Test "Wonder Woman 1984" behind the scenes Courtesy Warner Bros. Movies that do pass the test include: "Kill Bill" Volumes 1 and 2 (2003-2004) "Frozen" (2013). The film follows three different possible outcomes for her actions and explores her relationships and interactions with the people and the world aroundher. How it passes: Dont let the name fool you, Children of Men (opens in new tab) passes the Bechdel Test with flying colours. New Line Cinema Seems simple enough, right? Then again, its possible that the nurses exchanged at least a few lines complaining about their living conditions, talking about the war, etc., and a conversation about treating a patient who happens to be a man is arguably not really a conversation about a man. del test/n. While they both grapple with these feelings, we get to see how gorgeously complicated the human experience is through the lens of this intense and beautifully acted series. 2. Who talk to each other. The Wheel of TimeIn a rare turn of events, we have one of two fantasy series on the list! Neither speak to each other or ever meet. Alright, now were heading into the darker category. Wikipedia says that Ms. Bechdel prefers the name "Bechdel-Wallace test". So viewers would expect it to pass the Bechdel test with flying colors - and it does. Content copyright Journal Media Ltd. 2023 Registered in Dublin, registration number: Director and Producer James Cameron first wrote the script in 1994 and it took a whole 15 years before the film was made and released. Alison Bechdel Has Amended the Bechdel Test Just for Fire Island The cartoonist chimed in on the fiery Twitter debate spurred by one user's claim that the gay rom-com Fire Island did not. Well, if you're looking for a female fish in the sea you'd be hard pressed to find one in Nemo's world. While there are two female characters, Snow White and the Evil Queen, the latter is not given a name in the film. Aaron Sorkin, the films writer, actually commented on the lack of three-dimensional female characters in an interview with Stephen Colbert, saying that the women are prizes. Omit "The" from search term for best results. Movies with female directors have higher Bechdel scores. Never saw it, but Im to understand its woman centric. We encourage you to, Nine Recent TV Shows and Movies That Pass the Bechdel Test, have a look at this article to see who sits behind the camera, Ghostbusters (The one with all the women), How to measure the impact of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Training, Understanding Social Identities in the Workplace. Women make up more than half of the population, but it seems that theres still a problem with representation in films and on television. The actresses, who play characters of the same first names, started the show as a web series that was later picked up by Comedy Central. She quips that the last film she was able to go see was Alien in 1979. Black Widow, the two characters never interact to have a conversation. Votes: 13,610 | Gross: $1.60M. The test asks whether a film features at least two women talking to each other about something other than a man. In one installment of her comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For, one character informs the other that she will only go to see films in theaters that have adequate female representation. The Bechdel is a good test to show general representation of women in film/tv, and should not be used to critique the value or lack thereof, of any specific film/tv. The actor describes Harry Styles as "a very kind guy.". It also crushed the Golden Globes in 2017. Paramount Pictures. Go ahead and watch a few episodes while at work. 5. This movie about the pressures and pleasures of family-life, will have you teary . There's a third named female character, Agent Maria Hill (Colbie Smulders), but she only directs orders to her staff and there's no dialogue. At the time, hardly any films could pass it, and many forms of media still struggle to pass it today. It's worth noting though that this is in a series that shows women's asses at every opportunity & had gold-painted dancing girls earlier. We encourage you to, Ten Recent TV Shows That Pass the Bechdel Test, TV shows and movies that pass the Bechdel test, research conducted on film and gender in 2021, How to measure the impact of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Training, Understanding Social Identities in the Workplace. Yes, theres boy drama and girl drama (Kat identifies as bisexual), but the show isnt about romantic relationshipsits about friendships. At this point in time, the SGO team is fully remote, and we are located across the United States. The sparkling, progressive dialogue pretty much consists of, He doesnt need you, he has me., And Andrea the android talks to Nurse Chapel about a man in What Are Little Girls made of. Beyond that, it paved the way for 2018's reboot, which does pass the Bechdel test, as star Alicia Vikander told Metro in 2016. 1. Despite having three strong female characters in Arwen, Eowyn, and Galadriel, theyre all in completely different parts of Middle Earth and they never even meet, much less talk to each other. Its a good thing that she has good friends to help her do it. Dead To MeJen and Judy are complicated. A kid on a distant planet finds out about a magical force from an old man and he learns to be a Jedi and they fight against the Empire and yada yada. Issa Rae embodies all of these qualities in her character, Issa. Note: Your privacy is important to us, so please know that your information will always remain confidential! Red flags that you're dealing with a man-child. Not only are the relationships between the female characters strong and loving (see: Rebecca and Keeley, Nora, Noras mom Sassy, and the powerful moments between Rebecca and her mother), one might argue that Teds lack of patriarchal bullshit is what makes him a part of the feminist society ideal that many of us wish for. The Bechdel test is the most popular tool for assessing female representation in film. In 1985, American cartoonist Alison Bechdel included the idea for the Bechdel test (also known as the BechdelWallace test) in a comic strip called The Rule. . Take Game of Thrones for example. Shes got a bit of a grudge. Lauren OCallaghan. 20th Century Fox. Then it might be kinda shocking to find out that out of 2,500 movies, only about half pass the test. The next plot explores further how male and female characters interacted in each shows episodes. How is that hard to write? They each have their own baggage which we learn about over time (and theres definitely more to unpack). The Bechdel Test (BT), which checks for a rudimentary level of female-centricity in media, has elsewhere been covered thoroughly for movies, with a crowd-sourced manual approach, but not, to my knowledge, for television, except at a high level or in very selected cases. To pass the test, a film needs to meet 3very simple criteria. Did you see that fight scene where there was no music and she was just fighting and it was painful and awful and brilliant? This method probably fails to catch some cases where the topic of conversation was, broadly speaking, a male character, but a three-line sequence occurred without mentioning him by name or pronoun; but it seems too harsh to throw away the whole scene if a male is mentioned anywhere in the scene, since often scenes can involve multiple conversations between different groups of characters. They recently soft-launched their take on the Bechdel test, called the Riz test, which aims to cast a light on how Muslims are represented on film and TV shows. They confront him, defeat him, age weirdly, and everyone lives happily everafter. Visit our corporate site (opens in new tab). In fact it can be pretty spectacular, especially when youre hanging out with other women! The movie: Best friends Enid and Becky spend the summer after high school trying to figure out what theyre doing with their lives and along the way they meet a lonely, middle-aged man named Seymour, who Enid strikes up a friendship with. Washington Post, many films and TV shows fail the Bechdel Test (Rosenberg, 2015). The movie, which tells the story of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, features a few female characters, but they never talk to each other. Nope. Euphoria doesnt shy away from topics that would never have been included in a teen show ten years ago. Next up, consideration of film beyond this basic test. Journal Media does not control and is not responsible for user created content, posts, comments, 6. The three women talk about their work launching Project Mercury into space (ranging from aerospace engineering, to analytical geometry, to calculating trajectories, to phenomenally advanced maths), as well as about the professional obstacles in their way due to the prejudiced attitudes of their male, white co-workers. Kate McKinnon was everything. Killing EveVillanelle and Eve are the two stars of this thriller series and have a relationship like weve never seen before. Here are our favorites! Now, thats not to say that theyre all friends or even that their relationships are all healthy. So, what is the Bechdel Test? Pixar's record in general is pretty poor. The WitcherAnd our second fantasy series is The Witcher, which, despite a lot of male energy (wayy more um, cleavage, in this one), does indeed pass the Bechdel test a few times Yennefer and Tissaias complicated relationship, as well as Ciri and Eithns short time together, and honestly probably more but were still working our way through this story (hey, we still have pandemic time to watch!). Besides Friends, Will and Grace, and Married With Children, the other shows have a lopsided number of male characters, so are unlikely to be left without a male-male storyline. At a time when toxic masculinity is still very much alive and well, this entire show is a breath of fresh air. Avatar (2009) James Cameron's 2009 blockbuster movie does have strong feminist themes but fails the Test in one key aspect: its strong female leads Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) and Dr. Grace Augustine . If there were ever a female landing party member and a love interest for Kirk in the same episodethey usually just glared at each other. While reading a critical review of a popular show which noted that it didn't pass the Bechdel Test, it occurred to me, a long time fan of Hannibal Each step was calculated by scene and aggregated to episode level. This special show gives us hope, makes us feel good, and reminds us that aging doesnt have to be awful (despite all those anti-aging ads). About something other than a man. Yes, but her relationship with French agent Lasalle is significantly more interesting. This Canadian-made comedy about friends navigating motherhood will have you laughing out loud. Her struggle with alcohol comes to a head and it was powerful to see how her friends supported her without enabling her. Powered by Discourse, best viewed with JavaScript enabled. Although there is some discussion about the beauty of Chris Hemsworths character at some points - and how ditzy he is. When she meets Jules, a fellow female footballer, she cant help but join the local womens football team, but this causes major problems for her home life and Jess finds herself torn between what she wants and her familys expectations. Shes not like those other girls because shes basically one of the guys. All Posts; The Rundown; Entertainment News . I think it's a show that has great female characters. It uses the same lines identified above as part of a back-and-forth between two characters, and sums these by the gender of the pair of characters involved: female-female, male-male, or male-female. This was probably intended to refer to a one-on-one conversation, but in sitcoms often a larger group of characters are present in a scene. Fantasies are notoriously male-dominated (Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings, we see you!). note Additionally. The only problem is, theres another bridesmaid trying to muscle in on her territory. So real. All the Charlize Theron. Scandal: Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) spends her time cleaning up the scandals that could wrack Washington D.C. and its political elite. The measure sometimes is enhanced by adding that the two female characters be named in the film. On the list of TV shows I regularly watch, the only one I can . The readers of Dykes to Watch Out For (where the test originated) probably love this show. Because representation matters, and many of the people writing, directing, and producing are still majority men. Are there any TV shows that fail the Bechdel Test. Rebecca Nicholson. Thankfully, by Toy Story 3 Pixar had included a conversation between female . Each of the 12 districts must send one boy and one girl into the fight, and our heroine, Katniss Everdeen, actually volunteers to be the female tribute for Sector 12, in place of her younger sister. She+ Geeks Out was originally founded on land that is the traditional territory of the Massachusett and Pawtucket tribes, and which is still home to descendants of these peoples. It doesn't hurt that Rapunzel gets to do her fair share of saving the day. Big Littles Lies also brings drastically different women together who have one thing in common: Their kids are in the same class. Summit Entertainment Wire service provided by AFP and Press Association. Married With Children went in the other direction. Beyond the central relationship between those two women, any time theres a moment between women features the show at its best. I assume Yeoman Rand and Sulu dont count. More. Scared her people will turn on her, she runs away and loses emotional control plunging the Kingdom into an eternal winter. The Bechdel test, Also known as the Bechdel-Wallace test, is a test used for works of fiction (usually movies), named after the American cartoonist Alison Bechdel. Toy Story is such a beloved film to so many, but it unfortunately doesn't pass the test. Get the best gaming deals, reviews, product advice, competitions, unmissable gaming news and more! ), and there werent as many scenes that passed the Bechdel test in this season as there were in its first, but its absolutely still worth mentioning. Heres how it works. Your home for data science. The test is named for Alison Bechdel, creator of the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For, who made it known to the world with this strip. Thank goodness theres one more season to go. How about Girls? The Bechdel test is too incomplete to be effective. The test and its rules were first mentioned in Bechdel's 1985 comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For and has three (and later added four) simple rules: Imagine how tedious it would be if half of all of the films you watched never had any men who were important enough to be named in them? Creators, writers, and stars Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle portray versions of themselves in the year 2000. and TV shows. So, love them or hate them, you can probably relate to at least one of them. The three female mathematicians in the 1960s (played masterfully by Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and Janelle Monae) rarely talk about a man, focusing instead on their goals, their work, and the obstacles that they overcome every step of the way. Breaking out the results by show and season and plotting against broadcast year, there is some sign of an upward trend. When you finish the breakdown, you will have a full measure of the quality of the female presence. Over the years, there has been an increasing number of movies that pass the Bechdel test. But if females are in the story, theres no reason cant they be involved in at least one conversation with each other.

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