No movies, no roles, no winners: just BOOBS!

By Gabrielle Jackson

I’ve written about the Bechdel Test for films on this blog before, but I thought it was worth traversing the territory again in light of the Oscars performance yesterday. 

Of the nine films nominated for Oscars in 2013, not one of them was able to clearly pass the Bechdel Test for films.

The Bechdel Test for films is a simple equation set up to highlight the lack of women represented in film.  

It goes like this:

Does the film
1. Have at least two named women in it?
2. Who talk to each other?
3. About something besides men?
If the answer to all three questions is yes, the film passes the test.

The test aims to prove that the film industry is structured to make films about men for men.

Alison Bechdel introduced something called ‘the Rule’ to her cartoon strip, Dykes to Watch Out For, in 1985. One of the characters in the strip decided she would only see a film that met the three criteria above. She started a phenomenon. It is now a widely studied and acknowledged rule with its website currently rating almost 4,000 movies.

Even the Oscar-nominated films with female protagonists, namely Zero Dark Thirty and Beasts of the Southern Wild, aren’t clear-cut Bechdel Test winners. While some people on the Bechdel site have voted them in as passing, there is a strong debate going on, with many others disagreeing that these two movies pass the test.

Silver Linings Playbook comes the closest to scoring a pass, but even there, the conversation that happens between two women about something other than men comes down to one scene at which two men are present. Many disagree that this scene scores the film a pass, and so it is officially ranked as ‘dubious’ – a title also given to host Seth MacFarlane’s decision to sing a song about boobs as an opening number.

This is how far we’ve come, ladies and gentleman – just when we get some female leads in film and female directors being nominated, our roles have once again to be reduced to boobs. Just to keep us in our place. And if you don’t laugh and see the joke, you’re just a big fat bore. And probably a lesbian. 

In the interests of not wasting my energy getting angry about things that others have already got angry about, I finish my rant here and offer these two brilliant reviews of Seth MacFarlane's Oscars performance:

From Jezebel: Sexism Fatigue: When Seth MacFarlane Is a Complete Ass and You Don't Even Notice

From the New Yorker: Seth MacFarlane and the Oscars' Hostile, Ugly, Sexist Night 

(You might be happy to know that MacFarlance won't be coming back next year. But I think Tina Fey and Amy Poehler might be busy...) 

The Bechdel Test for women in movies

This movie has two women who talk to each other about something other than men (but only once)

By Gabrielle Jackson

I'd like to draw your attention to the Bechdel Test for films. It goes like this:

Does the film:
1. Have at least two (named) women in it?
     2. Who talk to each other?
          3. About something besides men?

If you answer yes to all three questions, the film has passed the test. Woohoo!

The fact that such a test exists is testament to how few films actually pass. And passing doesn't mean it's a feminist film, by any means, or that it's good, simply that it has parts for a couple of chicks.

The film industry is structured to make movies about men, for men. Are you happy with that? Women are half the world. You wouldn't know it by looking at Hollywood films. Independent cinema tends to score better, but there's still a huge gap between what is represented on the silver screen and what actually happens in real life.

I know that films are an escape and that they don't have to be representative of real life. But are we really saying that women don't feature in any fantasy world? That women are not interesting to anybody? That women have no stories to tell? 

Nobody is saying that all films should have women in them. Or that films with all male casts are bad. Or that we shouldn't watch films that fail the test. I'd never give up Top Gun.

But I think we should be aware of it, and apply the test to the films we see and the films we like. Maybe we should seek out films that pass the test.

I remember going on a date with a man when I first moved to New York in 2002. He asked me if I wanted to see Black Hawk Down, and I replied, 'Does it have any female characters?' He laughed, said, 'There's probably a love interest' and we saw The Royal Tenenbaums instead. He brought up that response often. He'd never thought about it before. It wasn't a feminist theory I'd researched and developed; it was just an instinct I had for what I liked.

I know a lot of men and women who love Black Hawk Down. I don't. I know a lot of men and women who hate The Royal Tenenbaums. It's one of my all-time favourite films and I felt that way before I even knew about the Bechdel test, let alone that it passed. Maybe I just like films that have women in them? I know I don't enjoy movies where lots of men go around shooting each other and I know if there's a car chase, I will probably hate it. But not all women are like me. I know women who love shoot 'em up movies and I'm happy for them that they have so much choice in what to see at the cinema.

But I'd like more choice too, please. So spread the word, be aware and watch some movies that pass the test. That way, more will be made. It's the box office, after all, that dictates the next films that are funded.

For the record, the last two films I've seen at the cinema both pass the test: Your Sister's Sister (with the added benefit of a female director AND writer) and Mental. I enjoyed both, but I think Your Sister's Sister is one of the best films I've seen all year. And I saw it with a MAN. WHO LIKED IT! I saw Mental with a woman who like it too, but since I know women's opinions are not as important, I won't capitalise that.

The Bechdel Test website is basic, but serves it purpose.

The Bechdel Test: What It Is and Why It Matters does a better job than me of explaining it. 

The Bechdel Test For Women In Movies is a short but good explanatory clip