Bechdel Test

Around seven months ago my better half brought up that there was a test to show whether or not a movie was sexist towards women. Now this was a strange concept to me being a male, but it really made sense to have such a thing due to the increasingly sexualized portrayal of females in movies. I ended up remembering the test because of another blogger who writes about problems that women face everyday (The link to her blog is right there ->http://cupoequality.blogspot.com/ ).The Bechdel test was popularized in 1985 with the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel whom the test is named for.

The test consist of two primary criteria. Are there two or more named female characters (this does not include blood relatives of the female character, and when they are alone do they talk about anything besides men. It seems as though this is a very simple test to pass, however most directors forgot to study.

This is the key problem for why women don't get as many movies that pertain to their needs. Women don't care to hear about what a fictional woman has to say about a fictional man. They are looking for a complicated and stimulating plot that empowers them. Now I am no expert when it comes to these types of movies, I always find them to be cliché since their message typically passes right over my head. However, I'm sure many people including myself would like nothing more than to be more informed on the subject.

A lack of attention is why this problem remains rather unheard of. I have only known of this for a few months and have heard about it only twice. Which seems odd considering how many revolutions of the social kind we have been experiencing in this progressive decade. This test is only to see if a movie is sexist on the surface, just because it passes doesn't mean that it is full of female empowerment.


The Comic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechdel_test