The Bechdel Test

The idea behind the test is to determine whether a film (or any other work of fiction for that matter) displays gender bias. The concept and the name of the test come from Alison Bechdel’s comic.

The rules are:       

1. a film should have at least two female characters who… 
2.  talk to each other about…
3.  something other than a man.

These requirements seem pretty undemanding. However, it is surprising how many popular films do not pass the test. Even worse, according to Charles Stross, approximately half of the films that do pass the Bechdel test have women talk about children or relationships. The Sex and the City seems to be a ‘great’ example of failing the test: "How does it happen that four such smart women have nothing to talk about but boyfriends? It's like seventh grade with bank accounts!", one of the characters of the immensely popular series says. 

The website bechdeltest.com has a database of films with comments on their score. Touted as the feminist film/western, The Homesman, miserably fails the test. Jennifer Kesler notes that in her work as a screenwriter she was expected not to apply the Bechdel Test’s rules because they deterred the audience from the movie – what they wanted was allegedly the white male lead. She comments, ‘According to Hollywood, if two women came on screen and started talking, the target male audience’s brain would glaze over and assume the women were talking about nail polish or shoes or something that didn’t pertain to the story. Only if they heard the name of a man in the story would they tune back in. By having women talk to each other about something other than men, I was “losing the audience.”’ 

Kesler left Hollywood reasoning that there was no chance of changing the system from the inside. She argues that Hollywod is full of immature boys who make films THEY want to see and use target audience as an excuse to fulfil their own desires.

This had pushed her to create thehathorlegacy.com, which aims to demonstrate gender portrayal and positive female characters in works of fiction (TV, books, movies, comics etc.). Here is an excerpt from the site’s mission: “They claim to have incredible amounts of ratings, survey and market research data to prove this is what the audience wants. But after decades of crappy female characters, what else could the data show? If you give a passionate orange lover the choice between a spoiled orange or an apple, she’s going to choose the apple . Only a fool – or someone with an agenda – would conclude she actually prefers apples to oranges. So this site exists to provide some alternate views of the film industry. […]Spread the word.”