Bechdel Test

As I mentioned before in a previous post, Alison Bechdel founded the "Bechdel Test" which is essentially a system of questions applied to a movie to see whether it comes off as sexist.

On the website Bechdeltest.com posters actually judge new releases and past movies to see whether they pass the test or not, which is really quite interesting. The whole basis is over whether two women in any given movie talk to eachother about anything besides a man. The posters judge as follows:

Fewer than two women in this movie

There are two or more women in this movie, but they don't talk to each other

There are two or more women in this movie, but they only talk to each other about a man

There are two or more women in this movie and they talk to each other about something other than a man^*

There is a comment for this movie

There are links to reviews available for this movie

* Please keep in mind that a movie scoring a does not mean it is at all "good" or feminist friendly, just that it passes all tests.

If there is an exclamation mark over the icon (eg. ), someone who has left a comment doesn't agree with the rating (and hopefully explains why).

If you look at the list of movies and how they were rated you start to see some trends, what I first noticed was that a lot of the popular super hero films do notttt get a pass. Those sorts of films typically revolve around a man in power and the women in his life. By the looks of it there are also several comedies which also fail the test.

After reading up on this I think I'll be paying closer attention to films now to see how they rate.

If you'd like to search a particular movie to see how it fairs, search here.