The Bechdel Test: Difference between revisions

'''The Bechdel Test''', Bechdel-Wallace Test, or the Mo Movie Measure<ref>named after Mo, the main character of ''DTWOF[[Dykes to Watch Out For]]'', even though it was introduced in a one-off strip before Mo was introduced</ref>, is a sort of litmus test for female presence in movies and TV. 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 [http://www.flickr.com/photos/zizyphus/34585797/ this strip]. Wikipedia says that Ms. Bechdel prefers the name "Bechdel–Wallace test".

# ''who have at least one conversation'',<ref> (some make the addendum that the conversation must be at least 60 seconds long)</ref>

Now, by limiting yourself to Bechdel-positive shows/movies that pass the test, you'd be cutting out a ''lot'' of otherwise-worthy entertainment; indeed, a fair number of top-notch works have legitimate reasons for including no women (e.g.such as ones set in [[The Shawshank Redemption|a men's prison]] or on [[Das Boot|a WWII military submarine]] or [[Twelve12 Angry Men|back when only men were on juries]]), or [[The Triplets of Belleville|with no conversations at all]], or having only [[Swimming Toto Cambodia|one]] or [[My Dinner Withwith Andre|two characters]]. You may even be cutting out a lot of works that have feminist themes. But that's the point: the majority of fiction created today, for whatever reason, seems to think women aren't worth portraying except in relation to men. Things have changed since 1985 when the test was first formulated (the strip in which it was originally suggested was written in 1985), but [[Most Writers Are Male|Hollywood]] still needs to be prodded to put in someone other than [[The Chick]].

The test is often misunderstood. The requirements are just what they say they are -- it doesn't make any difference if, for instance, the male characters the women talk about are their fathers, sons, brothers, platonic friends or mortal enemies rather than romantic partners. Conversely, if a work seems to pass, it doesn't matter if male characters are present when the female characters talk, nor does it matter if the women only talk about stereotypically "girly" topics like shoe shopping -- or even relationships, as long as it's not relationships ''with men''. Neither was the test ever meant to be taken seriously as a benchmark for determining a work's degree of feminism, let along considered more than a joke.

This is because '''the Bechdel Test is ''not'' meant to give a scorecard of a work's overall level of feminism'''. The test was designed as a joke. It is entirely possible for a Bechdel-positive film tonot pass withoutto havinghave overt feminist themes -- in fact, the original example of a movie that passes is ''[[Alien]]'', which, while it has feminist subtexts, is mostly just a sci-fi/action/horror flick. A movie can easily pass theclearly Bechdel-positive Testmovie andcan still be incredibly misogynistic. Conversely, it'sa also possible for aBechdel-negative story to fail the test andcan still be strongly feminist in other ways, and there's nothing necessarily wrong with that. What's a problem is that it becomes a pattern -- when ''so many'' movies fail the test, while very few show male characters whose lives seem to revolve around women, that says uncomfortable things about the way Hollywood handles gender.

It's obviously easier for a TV series, especially one with an [[Ensemble Cast]], to follow this rule than a film, because there's far more time for the conversation to occur in. To compensate for this, Bechdel-inspired analyses of television often look episode-by-episode, or compareapply the series'test complianceto withindividual Bechdel'sepisodes Ruleor withtwo-hour its compliance with a "reverse Bechdel rule" with the rolescollections of menepisodes. and women swapped (even without such compensation, itIt's often surprising to notice how long it takes many TV shows to pass)have a Bechdel-positive episode. AnotherAnd tacticsome wouldanalyses becompare the probabilityresults thatof athe typicalBechdel two-hourtest collectionto those of episodesan would[[Inverted Trope|inverted test]] with the passroles of men and women swapped.

We don'ret notlist goingevery tomovie's listBechdel passesTest and failuresresult here, because that would just be ahuge giant- but feel free to list, butwhether youa canparticular gowork checkpasses theor listfails ofon moviesthat atwork's [http://bechdeltestTrivia subpage.com/ If you're interested in seeing a list, see [http://bechdeltest.com/ Bechdel Test Movie List].

{{examples|Works that ''reference'' The Bechdel Test (named or not), whether they pass or fail the test:}}

* ''[[Questionable Content]]'' references the reverse Bechdel test in the title of [http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1426 this strip].

* ''[[Leftover Soup (Webcomic)|Leftover Soup]]'': [http://www.leftoversoup.com/archive.php?num=50 "Bechdel Test passed, bitches."]

* In ''[[Magick Chicks]]'', when Cerise and Callista go to a date, Callista [http://www.magickchicks.com/strips-mc/bechdel_test complains]{{dead link}} that the movie they've seen didn't pass the test.

* ''[[UnwindersUnwinder's Tall Comics]]'' references the test on [http://tallcomics.com/?id=100 page 100] with the Rastov Test (which, instead of dealing with feminism, is a dig at overly-elaborate [[Space Opera|Space Operas]] and [[Techno Babble]]).

{{quote| '''Unwinder:''' You may know a bit about [Warren Rastov] actually. Ever heard of the Rastov test?<br />

'''Barbecue Sauce:''' Is that like where a book or movie is only good if it has less than four warring factions, and they have to say at least one sentence that isn't full of made-up space jargon?<br />

* [http://www.buzzfeed.com/leefalhead/the-bechdel-test-1dq8 A Feminist Frequency video] shows a large number of popular Bechdel-negative movies that fail the test. In a running joke, the commentator yawns, wanders away, comes back with an apple, and eats it, while the movie posters are still blinking steadily along in the background.

* Name Dropped in ''[[AHAlternate DotHistory: ComThe Series]] : [[The Creepy Teen Years]]'' episode 2x19. It's noted as being the first time the series actually passed the test. The two women are discussing vacation plans.

* ''[[Atop the Fourth Wall]]'': (Web Video)|Linkara]] brings up the importance of the third point during his review of ''Sultry Teenage Super Foxes''. Yes, the cast is almost uniformly female but they never talk about anything but men. Unless you count the villains, that is.

* Talked about in ''[[Extra Credits (Web Video)|Extra Credits]]'' in the episode "[https://web.archive.org/web/20131021142158/http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/diversity Diversity]".

* In [[The Nostalgia Chick]]'s review of ''[[X-Men (Filmfilm)|X-Men: First Class]]'', she pointed out that it was one of the only superhero movies to pass the test. She then told her audience to go look up what the Bechdel Test was.

* ''[[Stuff You Like]]'' references this when reviewing ''[[Underworld (Filmfilm)|Underworld]]'' [http://blip.tv/stuffyoulike/halloween-special-5-ridiculously-entertaining-things-about-underworld-5680230 here]{{Dead link}}. The scene is [[Action Girl|Selene]] and Erika (briefly) discussing dresses (before going on to talk about... umm... men).

{{quote| '''[[Deadpan Snarker|Subtitles]]:''' Did they just pass the Bechdel Test?}}

* This blog [http://disney-blog.com/2011/05/the-bechdel-test-and-disney-films/ referencesruns the Bechdel Test ason itseveral relatesDisney toand Disney/Pixar animated movies]. andRoughly thathalf onepass, thatthough passes the test is not as rare as you might think.]older Pixar is muchfilms worsedidn't indo thisso regardhot. Many Disney films have two female characters interacting not about a man, but fails to be a conversation due to [[Animal Talk|one of the parties being an animal]].