The Bechdel Test

On Tuesday, Cassy mentioned the Bechdel Test, but I'm going to dive a little deeper into it for you today.

The test originated in a comic strip by Alison Bechdel called Dykes to Watch Out For. In a 1985 strip titled "The Rule," an unnamed character defined the Bechdel Test as her criteria for choosing movies to watch. It's intended to test movies, but I think it applies equally well to any narrative form, including TV episodes and novels.

The test is very simple. In order to pass, a movie must meet the following criteria:
There must be two female characters.
They must talk to each other.
The conversation must be about something other than a man.
(Told you it was simple.) Many people have suggested that it should also require that the characters have names, but this isn't always applicable.

The Bechdel Test is not perfect and doesn't really mean much. A movie can still be horribly sexist and pass the test. It can still be of extremely poor quality and pass the test. It can be prejudiced or offensive in thousands of other ways, and still pass the test.

It's just a fun exercise. It's not done to judge any qualities of the movies, but just to start a dialogue about the role of women in popular media.

Harry Potter series: Usually fails. I just watched the last two again, and they both failed. There are a handful of female characters, but they never have conversations about anything, not even men. (One-liners like "I've always wanted to use that spell" and "Not my daughter, you bitch" don't count as conversations.)

Lord of the Rings series: Not actually surprising, but huge fail. There are three female characters, and they're never anywhere near each other. (This goes for The Hobbit too, except there's only one female character in part one...)

Star Wars trilogy: Faaaaaail. It takes a real fan to even name a female character other than Leia (hint: there are two; secret: I didn't even know that much). Fun fact: the prequels actually pass the test, because of Padme's handmaids.

Brave: Pass! Merida and her mom talk about things other than boys (even though they also talk a lot about boys). Merida also talks to the witch, and boys aren't even mentioned.

Hunger Games: Pass! Katniss talks to her mom, Prim, Effie, and Rue (and only with Rue does she discuss Peeta as a love interest).

Men In Black: Fail. But to be fair, it has the word "men" right there in the title. The sequels also fail.

Ha! Look at those cell phones.

Clueless: Pass! The girls talk about things like clothes, shopping, exercise, driving, sex, grades, teachers, and parents... and also boys. The same goes for Mean Girls... they talk about other girls, and fashion, and the talent show... plus boys. Which brings me to a good point...

Like I said, passing the Bechdel test promises nothing about a movie, other than what it actually tests. It can still show women as vapid or jealous or mean or moody or any of a hundred other negative stereotypes. The thing is, using the test usually brings these facts to the foreground, making you think more critically about the ways women are portrayed in film. Interesting, right?

Check some of your favorite movies... do they pass the Bechdel test? What about your favorite TV shows and books? (Remember: This doesn't mean anything bad; it's just for fun!)

Gender Roles in Literature

Gender roles are actually a big deal in literature, if you really pay attention.  They've changed, drastically, over the years.  For instance, if you look at a novel like Jane Austen's, women were meant to be married and constantly have men take care of them, rescue, escort them, run their lives.  If you didn't have a good marriage, then nothing else in your life was really pertinent.  Even though Austen had smart, independent women in her book, they were still confined to specific roles (however, Austen's first line of Pride & Prejudice seems to be a commentary on the absurdity of it all.)

Today, literature leans more towards books that have independent  self-sufficient women who tend to be equal, or better than, their male counterparts.

We see a LOT of this happening in YA literature.  Take The Hunger Games, for example.  Katniss was the one who supported her family, who did the hunting (both of which are usually roles assigned to males).  Katniss inevitably saved her sister from the arena.  Even when she was in the arena, she relied heavily on herself and was the one who had to help Peta.

If you read our review of Starters, you'll see the same trend.  Callie is the one to protect her brother after her parents die.  She is the one who works so hard for everything that she has, and, the one who risks everything, and inevitably exposes everything.

However, traditional gender roles are extremely prevalent in literature today.  The most obvious place that we see this is in Romance novels and Chick Lit.  The market is filled with women who can't seem to function until a man comes and saves her.  Twilight is an excellent example of female dependence on a male.  Bella is constantly getting herself in trouble or having accidents, causing Edward (or Jacob) to have to save her.  Even though, at the very end of the very last book, this role changes for a very short amount of time, it doesn't really counteract the theme of the first three and a half books where she needs Edward to protect her.

Gender roles even appear in our Children's books.  Though, in recent years, girls are just as productive as boys.  Take, for instance, in Harry Potter, Hermione always has to save not only Ron, but also Harry.  If not for her knowledge, they would have died, minimum, seven times.  Or what about Winnie The Pooh, a book where a boy plays with stuffed animals, a role general assigned to little girls.  There are still children's books that throw women into the stereotypical gender roles. Fairy tales are an excellent example of this.  Initially, they weren't meant for kids, but today, we market a lot of them towards young girls.  We tell them that they are beautiful princesses, whose only job is to wait for a handsome, rich, male who can save her from the big bad.

Gender roles are everywhere, and even though a book may seem to break them, you can always try the age old Bechdel Test.