(will pass the test, but female characters are still underrepresented) Beyond the central relationship between those two women, any time theres a moment between women features the show at its best. Zoe Delahunty-Light. Most are finally passing the Bechdel test, aka a test that analyzes a scene where two or more women talk about anything else other than men. We've managed to find 25 of the best movies that pass the Bechdel Test. In fact it can be pretty spectacular, especially when youre hanging out with other women! Did it miss the mark on some topics? Sam Loveridge. This evil stepmother figure in Disneys 1998 remake is finally receiving the appreciation she always deserved. Should it be dismissed entirely? Despite being a children's animation company, only 25% of the characters in it are female, only 4 out of 14 Pixar films pass the Bechdel test, and Brave is the only movie to have a female protagonist. If youre behind on this one, too, then Im honestly kinda surprised you even know what movies are. 101 Dalmatians (rated G): The original 1961 animated version squeaks . As the first woman to become pregnant in years, she carries an extremely precious cargo and faces danger on all sides. Toy Story is such a beloved film to so many, but it unfortunately doesn't pass the test. Mark Zuckerberg and his buddies spend two hours screwing over each other and everyone else around them in pursuit of Facebook billions, apparently in an attempt to prove that nerds cant havefriends. Like Harry Potter, there are a few brief moments where female characters say a single line at each other, but they dont actually hold a conversationexcept in one scene, where Neytiri and her mother have a drawn out discussion. Paramount Pictures. How it passes: The two leads, and indeed the majority of the cast, are women and the only time they really talk about men is when they briefly explain their crimes or discuss trying to get Geres Billy Flynn to represent them. Its clear that their relationships with each other, as well as with the larger community of human computers, gives them the support they use to succeed. Third, that conversation must be about something other than a man. It covers domestic violence, marriage hardships, and the misconception of perfection. When she meets Jules, a fellow female footballer, she cant help but join the local womens football team, but this causes major problems for her home life and Jess finds herself torn between what she wants and her familys expectations. Gomer Pyle, Sgt. A hobbit gets caught up in a huge war when he has to take a magic ring right to the bad guys front door. Heres an excerpt on research conducted on film and gender in 2021: After reaching historic highs in 2020, the percentages of women directing top grossing films declined in 2021. While Enid occupies herself with finding him a girlfriend, she and Becky grow further apart. So, what is the Bechdel Test? Easily passing the Bechdel test, Dead to Me brings together two women with completely different ways of being in the world together to deal with some wild bananas weird stuff. The test is named after and . In one installment of her comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For, one character informs the other that she will only go to see films in theaters that have adequate female representation. She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, the critically-acclaimed reboot of the beloved 80s animated series, is a shining example of how to pass the Bechdel test. The test and its rules were first mentioned in Bechdel's 1985 comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For and has three (and later added four) simple rules: Entertainment News. Wire service provided by AFP and Press Association. Although there is some discussion about the beauty of Chris Hemsworths character at some points - and how ditzy he is. The Bechdel Test is a simple test which names the following three criteria: (1) it has to have at least two women in it, who (2) who talk to each other, about (3) something besides a man. The Bechdel Test is a simple test to see if a work of fiction passes the feminist [] Star Trek: DiscoveryThe latest addition to the Star Trek universe is soooo goooooood. 2020, however, has already been a promising year for Bechdel Test-passing hits. American supervillain. Please note that uses cookies to improve your experience and to provide Broad City created by Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson super modern and funny. We are now operating in a virtual space, but we can still honor and name the physical spaces we all inhabit. 6) Encanto. Big Little Lies was produced by Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman, two women who were sick of seeing women portrayed in a one-dimensional way. To join our community, just fill out the form below. If so, then the very first episode aired passes. Land acknowledgements are a way for us to reflect upon the duality of our work while we work within our team, our community, and our client organizations to promote greater inclusivity and abolish inequities, we ourselves still perpetuate and contribute to various forms of historical and present oppression. And its been surprisingly challenging for movies and TV shows to pass this basic test. Now, thats not to say that theyre all friends or even that their relationships are all healthy. And this is despite the fact that Cate Blanchett is Liv Tyler's grandmother in the film, so it would have been completely possible for them to schedule some sort of visit together to say goodbye in case Middle Earth went down in flames! But if females are in the story, theres no reason cant they be involved in at least one conversation with each other. Remember the test was originally invented to help lesbians find movies theyd like. The movie: Best friends Enid and Becky spend the summer after high school trying to figure out what theyre doing with their lives and along the way they meet a lonely, middle-aged man named Seymour, who Enid strikes up a friendship with. Despite Lola being considered one of the most well-rounded female characters ever put to film, Run Lola Run still fails The Bechdel Test for one simple reason Lola never has a conversation with another female at any point in the movie. But the shows that dont pass the test are about men who already have established careers, and so the relationships between women fall to the wayside. It gets uncomfortable at times, but their stellar performances keep us glued. Of course, people watch movies for the simple pleasure that the story brings. Then again, its possible that the nurses exchanged at least a few lines complaining about their living conditions, talking about the war, etc., and a conversation about treating a patient who happens to be a man is arguably not really a conversation about a man. The percentage of women working as directors on the top 100 films retreated from 16% in 2020 to 12% in 2021. Proving that women . In 1985, American cartoonist Alison Bechdel. Theres glitter, spandex, and a lot of fighting. To pass the Bechdel Test, two female characters who have names must have a conversation with each other about something other than a man. And so are five other '90s tattoo styles. The characters must talk about something other than a male character. Pen15 might give you flashbacks to being a preteen. Friends, Will and Grace, and Married With Children had more conversations between different gender characters than same gender. A lot of Hollywood films fail this test miserably and portray women in a sexist and unfair way. Cue epic action sequences, horrendously troublesome gameplay tactics, and even a little bit of romance. 2.3 OTHER DIVERSITY TESTS This site uses cookies. To pass, a movie must have two named women converse about something other than a man. * I cant remember Uhura ever talking to Rand or Nurse Chapel.**. The movie: The Bride is hellbent on - surprise surprise - killing Bill because he and his assassins tried to kill her and her unborn child many years ago. A few years ago, we compiled a list of recent TV shows and movies that pass the Bechdel test and thought it was time to revisit this with a focus on TV we live in a golden age of television! In 1985, American cartoonist Alison Bechdel included the idea for the Bechdel test (also known as the BechdelWallace test) in a comic strip called The Rule. (Episode III does still fail, though. But it goes much further than this, with Katniss having a variety of conversations with other women, ranging from her mother and Rue, to the delightfully colourful Effie Trinket, and only once does a romance get mentioned in one conversation between Katniss and Rue. 3. for more than one minute of screen time. You will have a very real assessment of how much screen time this element has. Visit our corporate site (opens in new tab). Women are not always these well-dressed, confident, and successful creatures; sometimes were just uncomfortable in our own skin. It's a quiz developed in 1985 by graphic novelist Alison Bechdel and her friend Liz Wallace that reveals just how sexist (or not) any given work of fiction might be. Cocaine Bear is the latest in a long line of movies to portray bears as bloodthirsty beasts, clamoring for the chance to feast on innocent humans. Are there any TV shows that fail the Bechdel Test. Registered office: 3rd floor, Latin Hall, Golden Lane, Dublin 8. Lola must figure out how to come up with 100,000 Deutsche Marks in twenty minutes or her boyfriend will be killed. The actresses, who play characters of the same first names, started the show as a web series that was later picked up by Comedy Central. How it passes: The Hunger Games (opens in new tab) actually passes the Bechdel Test in the very first scene. Because representation matters, and many of the people writing, directing, and producing are still majority men. The test has three criteria: 1. the movie must have at least two female characters, 2. who talk to each other about something other than a man, and. "Glitch". Wikipedia says that Ms. Bechdel prefers the name "Bechdel-Wallace test". 11 The Imitation Game Based on the 1982 biography Alan Turning:. The Flight AttendantWe arent Big Bang Theory people, so we didnt have much of a frame of reference for Kaley Cuoco, but wow does she and her castmates do a spectacular job. As with previous Ghostbusters movies, the busters are tracking down some ghosts who are wreaking havoc in New York. Next up, consideration of film beyond this basic test. SuperJail, unless JailBot is female. This may feel a bit more like a soap opera than a drama, but it absolutely passes the test! The Bechdel test is the most popular tool for assessing female representation in film. The Bechdel test has three stipulations: two named women characters need to have a conversation about something other than a man. However, its not the case that these shows were full of male-male conversations without female involvement: as seen by the fact that no show lies below 0.8 on the y-axis, these shows had as many, or almost as many, male-female conversations, as male-male conversations. The movie: Annies best friend is getting married so naturally shes Maid of Honor. Kate McKinnon was everything. Each of the 12 districts must send one boy and one girl into the fight, and our heroine, Katniss Everdeen, actually volunteers to be the female tribute for Sector 12, in place of her younger sister. Mrs. Maisel is about a woman who is getting a divorce from her husband who cheated on her and finds her voice as a comic in the 1950s/60s and to be clear, she is definitely seen as a female comic. There's only two named female characters in the whole of the 2008 Oscar winner of Best Picture: Jamal's mother (who dies early on), and Jamal's love interest. Get the best gaming deals, reviews, product advice, competitions, unmissable gaming news and more! Rachel Weber is the US Managing Editor of GamesRadar+ and lives in Brooklyn, New York. Alison Brie's Ruth . So viewers would expect it to pass the Bechdel test with flying colors - and it does. Friends performs the best on the BT, and passes the full test in almost every episode. The movie: Jess loves football, but she comes from an orthodox Sikh background, which means her traditional parents want her to give up playing and go to university, become a doctor, and marry a nice Indian boy. Sam Loveridge. Lauren OCallaghan. Definitely not. Big Little Lies was produced by Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman, two women who were sick of seeing women portrayed in a one-dimensional way. She+ Geeks Out was originally founded on land that is the traditional territory of the Massachusett and Pawtucket tribes, and which is still home to descendants of these peoples. The Bechdel Test is a test for whether a movie contains: Two named female characters, who talk to each other, about something besides a man. Some deviations from reality were for humor; some were for drama. (Wikimedia) Virginia. All Rights Reserved. How it passes: Its true that Frozen (opens in new tab) only has two named female characters, but the movie is literally about them and their relationship to each other. Ombudsman, and our staff operate within the Code of Practice. Theyre the kind of friends you can share all your embarrassing moments with because theyve seen (and done) it all. None of the female characters in the film actually have a conversation. It doesn't cover the case when the lead character is female. Having a lot of lines between different gender characters makes it harder to pass the BT; from this perspective, it is better to concentrate the male characters in one storyline/scene, and the female characters in another. Most are finally passing the Bechdel test, aka a test that analyzes a scene where two or more women talk about anything else other than men. The Bechdel Test asks three key questions about a movie's female characters. It uses the same lines identified above as part of a back-and-forth between two characters, and sums these by the gender of the pair of characters involved: female-female, male-male, or male-female. Don't get too bogged down in the requirements of the Bechdel Test test though because even if you're not sure what it means, every film on this list is a great movie in its own right, so you won't be disappointed.