There's really no two ways around this, considering the title of this entry, so here goes: about three-quarters of the way through the film, I found myself thinking about Gwen, and how I really thought she seemed like a great female character - smart, ambitious, doing the right thing even if it meant getting in trouble/danger/losing her job, quick on her feet, knew that she shouldn't give up her dreams just for love, willing to make hard choices, and just all around pretty badass even though she didn't throw a single punch. In short, she felt like a well-rounded female character that knew what she wanted from the world, someone I personally felt I could identify with. Did the character have flaws? Of course, but I felt the flaws reflected those someone could find in a real person, meaning I really liked movie Gwen and felt she was a huge improvement over comic Gwen. All this thinking about how Gwen showed traits of being a strong female character (and superheroic in her own, non-superpowerful way) got me thinking about women in film and the media, and that line of thought naturally brought me to the idea of the Bechdel Test.
The Bechdel Test is named after female cartoonist Allison Bechdel, who later attributed it to a friend. She brought the concept up in her 1984 comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For (which, holy shit, best webcomic name ever), where a character named Mo and her friend are discussing which movie to go see. Mo, a feminist, states that she has three rules for whether or not to see a movie. These three rules are:
- The movie must contain two women...
- ... Who talk to each other...
- ... About something other than a man.
Now, before anyone raises the torches and pitchforks here, let me point out that I am not at all saying this is a bad measure of gender bias in films. I'm also not saying it shouldn't be used. I am, however, saying that the test might be flawed, and perhaps should not be the only measure by which one judges how "women-friendly" a film is. After all, ideally, shouldn't a good character transcend gender, racial, and sexual orientation lines to be someone anyone can identify with, regardless of background? And isn't it possible for a film that passes the Bechdel Test to contain otherwise misogynistic or gender-biased content, for example women being treated more like sex objects than actual people?
So, I guess the best thing to do here is to present some ways the Bechdel Test itself might fail, and then compare those to how it might work out, depending on the context. So, let's start with the bad news, and presume the Test is flawed. How might it be flawed? Well...
- The Test fails to account for women talking about children, grandparents, or friends. Think about it - the Test specificially says the women must speak to each other about something other than a man, not a male. That means that Aunt May and Mary speaking to each other about Peter's parents' fate and Peter having to stay with his aunt passes the Bechdel Test. So does Gwen speaking off-screen to a (female) Oxford representative about attending the prestigious university, and Gwen talking to her mom after she graduates High School. The film passes the Bechdel Test, however, the only prominant females in the film are Gwen and Aunt May - everyone else important is a man. Another example is Pacific Rim, which contains two kick-ass female characters, one of whom is a hugely important character and a character with PTSD to boot. Definitely a strong female character with serious flaws who talks to people about things other than a man (in fact, relationships are never brought up in the film). But because the two females don't really speak to each other, the film fails the Bechdel Test despite being (in my opinion) very female-friendly in regards to positive portrayals of women.
- The Test fails to account for lesbians talking to each other about relationships, and doesn't cover a cis woman talking to a transgender individual at all. This is a huge problem. I think we can all agree at this point that lesbians and trans individuals are way, way more marginalized than straight females are in the media. Seriously, when was the last positive portrayal of a lesbian or transgender character you've seen? Orange Is the New Black, The L Word, and Queer As Folk cover these issues, but those are television shows, not movies - we're talking strictly film here. A film can fail the Bechdel Test if it's about two lesbian women discussing a male friend, or pass if it's two lesbians talking about their relationship with each other, despite the fact that they may be speaking about it the exact same way as two straight women might about a man. And forget a cis woman speaking to a transgender individual (if you can even find a film where there are trans individuals portrayed positively) - too many feminists seem to have this disgusting notion that transwomen aren't real women because they were born in a male body, or that transmen are traitors to their gender because they "gave up" or "chose" to be male. This kind of transphobia is sickening and should have no place in feminism whatsoever in 2014, but the Bechdel Test allows it by technically allowing a film to fail if a film contains two women speaking about a transman, or two women (one cis, the other trans) speaking about something other than a man, or a transman and cis woman speaking to each other. Which, wow, really, guys? Really? You want to fall back on an inherently transphobic test to discuss gender bias towards women? That kind of defeats the purpose when you're not including all gender identities with the terms "man" and "woman". For reference, since there's transmale characters in Orange Is the New Black, it actually fails the Bechdel Test by the given standards, because two men are speaking to each other about other men, not two women. So does Black Butler, which at one point includes transwoman Grell Sutcliffe speaking to another woman (Ciel's aunt) about why she feels said aunt has failed her as a murder spree partner. Because Grell has a male body, however, the Bechdel Test doesn't consider this to be two women talking to each other. Don't expect anyone to actually comment on that, though.
- The Test can be seen as being inherently biased against certain film genres, and disqualifies most others after some thought, limiting film options severely. Let's think about this a second - what are some common genres where two women might discuss a male in a relationship aspect? Romance, Comedy (especially Rom-Coms), Drama, Historical Fiction, Novel Adaptation, Chick Flick. That leaves only Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller, Action/Adventure, and other typically male-oriented genres. Think about it - when's the last time you saw a Slasher film where women, whether there's two of them or not, discuss the villain in romantic terms? Granted, that doesn't stop them from talking about another guy, but as we've already seen, the Test considers two women speaking about any man to be a fail, so Slasher Horror is out. Other genres, like Psych Horror, Lovecraftian Horror, and Biological/Zombie Horror, are safe generally, so Horror's a safe bet for a Bechdelian movie-goer. Thrillers fall under Horror and may be wishy-washy areas, but can be considered sort of safe. Sci-Fi is wishy-washy too, and being aimed at men more often than women is likely to not be a good bet, so it's out too. Action/Adventure doesn't usually focus on relationships, but might have one or two - it's likely you'll find a strong female, but not two of them. If you do, it's almost guaranteed they won't talk to each other. If they do, however, it's nearly guaranteed that it won't be about a man, depending on the flick. As for superhero movies? Depends - the Dark Knight Trilogy fails the Test in all three films, but some of the X-Men films don't. In other words? I hope you really, really like Horror films, ladies, because that's all you'll ever be able to watch if you strictly go by Bechdel rules to determine what you wanna watch.
- The Test fails to account for the significance of the female roles, or the way the female roles may impact the plot. In other words, just because two females talk about a man, or there's only one female, does not mean that the female character does not effect the plot in a way that sends a message of female empowerment. A good example of this is Marble Hornets, although not a movie - it has two female characters, but they don't speak to each other at all, and even if they did it probably wouldn't be about a man (and no, Soapbox Sadie, the Operator does not count as "a man". It doesn't even count as a human being). However, Jessica, the female character with the most screentime, is the sole reason Jay gets out of the hotel and isn't Operator chow, the sole person who kept him moving forward, the sole person who could possibly have helped him (or so he thought) aside from Tim, the sole person who made sure the footage caught during Season 2 was safe in the vault, and the sole reason Jay even got into trouble (she was the person who Jay looked for in Rosswood after she vanished). That's pretty damn significant, even if she didn't speak to Amy about someone other than a male cast member. So, Marble Hornets fails the Bechdel Test, but still shows a female character in an important role that leaves a lasting impact on other characters. She could have been male, and it wouldn't have been any different. Which brings me to another point...
- The Test fails to account for strong female characters and female protagonists in general. Here's a good example: the female protagonist in Pacific Rim has serious impact on the film, dreams and goals of her own, and in general is a strong character and female role model. She's seriously badass, as is the other, Russian Female (whom is the leader of her Jaeger team, I believe). However, Pacific Rim fails the Test, all because these two female characters don't speak to each other. Another one - the Metroid series. Samus Aran is kickass as fuck and definitely a strong female character. She's a literal fucking space marine and she's so cool, I'd look up to her if I were a little girl who wanted a strong female hero. However, the Metroid series fails the Test, because Samus never speaks to another (human) female about anything, let alone a guy. She never speaks at all. All this despite the fact that she's a badass whom any young girl could look up to as a female hero. Yes, a female-friendly game series fails a test of "women-friendliness". Houston, that's a problem.
- The Test does not account for historical settings, or settings that may not lend themselves to female cast members. For example, in a story about a monistery filled with monks, of course there won't be any women. Such a film would automatically fail the Bechdel Test, simply because there's no women, no matter what sort of message it sends (even if the message is positive towards everyone and there are minor female characters in the film that are portrayed positively). Another example would be a story set in the middle-ages or a fictional "knights and dragons" type setting - the Lord of the Rings trilogy, for example. The Fellowship is all-male, in a setting where it's unlikely that women of any race would be allowed to go to war, have certain roles, etc. These films, of course, fail the Test, because half the damn dialogue is about Frodo, or Sauron, or some other male character. Yet another example is in the Disney film Mulan, which fails because she speaks to her grandmother and a matchmaker about finding a man to marry, despite the fact that for the entire rest of the film, the character pretty much embodies female empowerment in feudal China. And if we count non-human male characters, then Alice in Wonderland fails too, because Alice mentions and discusses male characters (the White Rabbit, the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter) when the Red Queen puts her on trial later in the film.
- The Test does not account for misogyny in other forms besides two women speaking about a man. First of all, two guys speaking about a man isn't inherently misogynistic; women in real life do that all the time. I'm talking here about women being used as sex symbols, or being presented in otherwise stereotyped roles - the evil hag, the princess who marries the dashing prince, the woman who ends up becoming a damsel in distress... All of these are problematic portrayals of women in fiction. Let's take an example here - Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (musical not Burton film, for reference). There's a scene where Mrs. Lovett shoos a beggar woman out of her pie shop. This counts as two women discussing something other than a man, and therefore passes the Bechdel Test. However, Mrs. Lovett is also a conniving woman who is the one who suggests that Sweeney give her the dead bodies from his clients to bake into meat pies (fitting the "evil ugly woman" stereotype as well as the "bawdy (sometimes fat) woman" stereotype depending on the actress playing her), and the beggar woman isn't exactly portrayed positively, either - she's a prostitute due to her low social status and paucity, and she's considered a "looney" to boot. Elsewhere, we see Joanna treated in a fetishized way by her caretaker, the Judge, to the point that one of the Judge's defining trait is his misogyny and perverted behavior. The Judge and the Beadle even say they believe (as many did in that time period) that women are "fragile" creatures that need to be "persueded" to love a man. Can you say "super-rapey undertones"? Joanna herself is treated as Incorruptible Pure Pureness, a prize to be won by the male characters. Yeesh. I know that's fairly historically accurate, but you'd think a musical that otherwise passes the Bechdel Test would be a little more woman-friendly! And what about comics? Sure, you have females that talk to each other about things other than dudes in comics (Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn, for example, both do and don't always discuss men depending on the storyline), on both the hero and villain sides... but when you look at how their costume are drawn or what poses they're drawn in, no amount of passing the Bechdel Test is going to make the portrayal any less sexist. Oh, and then there's films about female strippers, such as Showgirls, where female characters talk about things in a way that, if the Bechdel Test fails it (and it does), could be considered slut-shaming. Which, hopefully, I don't need to tell you is misogynistic as hell.
- The Test is a pretty good way to determine gender bias towards women in the media. If you really are dead set on finding a film that is feminism-friendly, this test may be your best bet. After all, if you can't even find a film with two women who don't discuss a dude in it, then how will you find a film that treats women respectfully in general? The actual comic strip the Bechdel Test comes from uses the example of the film Alien, where two women talk to each other about the Xenomorph (AKA "alien").
- The Test is currently the only way to measure gender bias towards women in the media. We really don't have any other way to see if a film is treating women properly or not, unfortunately, and it's much the same for similar tests for race, LGBTQA+ people, and other marginalized groups.
- The Test is a reminder to others to be conscious of the way marginalized groups have been and are represented in the media. It's always good to keep in mind that the way a minority is portrayed does not necessarily indicate how a minority is in reality, and that's one big step towards equity for everyone that's super-important. That's one good thing about The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - one of its villains belongs to a marginalized social group and, being a nerdy type, is doubly invisible to everyone. He's even treated differently by the police in a way that could be read as being due to his race. This makes his inevitable turn towards the dark side much more relatable and sympathetic, because now he's not just someone relatable to anyone who's ever felt "invisible", he's an allegory about how racial minorities can be shoved aside and treated poorly simply on the basis of their race in reality. That's damn powerful, and damn important, to cover in fiction.
- The Test shows a worrying disparity in how women are portrayed to men, and that's a problem for both. Think about it. How often do you see women discuss men in fiction? Now how often do men discuss women in fiction? If a film doesn't pass the Bechdel Test, it's probably a good indicator that not only is it stereotyping women as being touchy-feely, man-oriented creature, it's also stereotyping men as being unfeeling, uncaring assholes who want nothing to do with women or give no consideration to women's feelings. In other words, a film that fails the Bechdel Test might not only be misogynistic, but misandristic as well. It might also indicate that a film uses other stereotypes elsewhere, say, LGBTQA+ stereotypes or religious stereotypes.