The Bechdel Test: Difference between revisions
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{{Useful Notes|wppage=Bechdel test}}
[[The Bechdel Test]], Bechdel-Wallace Test, or the Mo Movie Measure<ref>named after Mo, the main character of ''
In order to pass, the film or show must meet the following criteria:
# ''It includes at least two women'',<ref> (some make the addendum that the women must be ''named'' characters)</ref>
# ''who have at least one conversation'',<ref> (some make the addendum that the conversation must be at least 60 seconds long)</ref>
# ''about something other than a man or men''.<ref> The exact interpretation of this can vary; some feel that it's okay to mention a man or men so long as they're not the primary subject of the conversation, while others will demand a conversation where men aren't mentioned '''at all'''.</ref>
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Now, by limiting yourself to Bechdel-positive shows/movies, 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 (such as ones set in [[The Shawshank Redemption|a men's prison]] or on [[Das Boot|a WWII military submarine]] or [[12 Angry Men|back when only men were on juries]]), or [[The Triplets of Belleville|with no conversations at all]], or having only [[Swimming To Cambodia|one]] or [[My Dinner with 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, 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 not to have 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 clearly Bechdel-positive movie can still be incredibly misogynistic. Conversely, a Bechdel-negative story can still be strongly feminist in other ways, and there's nothing necessarily wrong with that.
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