Women in Film // Research: The Bechdel Test

The Bechdel test is something that is applied to movies to find out if they represent women at a bare minimum.

The rules:

• does the film have two or more women in it?
• do the women have names?
• do they talk to each other about something other than men?

It isn't a test to check if a movie promotes gender equality or is of quality, it is simply to make people think about how gender is represented in the film industry.

This short video effectively rounds up what the Bechdel test is, and how many critically acclaimed movies don't even pass it. Films such as:

• The Dark Knight
• Pirates of the Caribbean
• Fight Club
• Lord of the Rings
• a number of the Harry Potter films

http://io9.com/why-the-bechdel-test-is-more-important-than-you-realize-1586135613

The test is based on the comic above by Liz Wallace, that outlines a woman who refuses to watch movies that don't follow these simple rules.

The downfalls of this test is that is is incredibly simple and vague, as best put in the io9 article:

"Let's admit the Bechdel Test is not fool-proof, since Gravity fails and a film where women talk about pedicures for 30 seconds would pass."

"But yes — the Bechdel Test is just the start of a conversation about how marginal women still are (in front of the camera and behind). And that, in turn, is part of an even larger conversation about how to have genre movies that 1) represent the human race more fully and 2) are less boring."