There seems to be a lot of confusion about the Bechdel test. Many people think the goal is to pass the test, but actually, that’s not it at all.
For those who don’t know, the “test” comes from a comic in which one character cleverly gets out of going to the movies with another by saying she will only go to a movie that contains two named female characters having a conversation with each other about something other than men. That rules out every movie available because, well – think about all the movies you can think of. These scenes are stunningly rare.
Make this observation in the context of discussions on how women are represented in the media, and you often get a response like: “Oh, so I’m supposed to shoehorn this stupid scene into my story so the PC police will get off my back?” But that’s a thought process short-circuited. How on earth would inserting a scene as potentially dull as the one described in the comic make a movie less sexist?
The point of the Bechdel test is something else entirely. Upon realizing how rare these scenes are, the average person is stunned enough to wonder precisely why these scenes are so rare?
Answer: because so few movies and TV shows include multiple, developed, relevant women characters who have any part in advancing the story. Imagine how hard it would be to avoid a scene in which two named men chat about something other than women. Why do you suppose that is? Because virtually every movie and TV show contains multiple, developed, relevant male characters who have some part in advancing the story. See?
Female characters are traditionally peripheral to male ones. That’s why we don’t want to hear them chatting about anything other than the male characters: because in making them peripheral, the writer has assured the women can’t possibly contribute to the story unless they’re telling us something about the men who drive the plot. That is the problem the test is highlighting. And that’s why shoehorning an awkward scene in which two named female characters discuss the price of tea in South Africa while the male characters are off saving the world will only hang a lantern on how powerfully you’ve sidelined your female characters for no reason other than sexism, conscious or otherwise.
It’s not that the audience doesn’t want to hear what “women” characters have to say, as one film pro told me (see above-linked article). It’s that we don’t want to hear what’s said by irrelevant, underdeveloped characters who have nothing to do with the plot. If this was the only role 99.9% of male characters were allowed in film, we might get the idea that male characters never say anything relevant, and should therefore just shut up and look hot.
This, by the way, is why I retain a warm spot in my heart for Xena, despite its flaws: it rarely passed the reverse Bechdel test, thus proving men are not remotely essential for exciting, action-packed stories. Like Xena, Buffy the Vampire Slayer featured women doing exciting things. Neither show could’ve avoided passing the Bechdel test regularly if they’d wanted to: the plots, which relied on women characters, would’ve stalled out in the first act.
Whether or not your story includes the Bechdel scene says absolutely nothing about whether it’s sexist or not. The measure of sexism is whether your story denies women the opportunity to participate in it.
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Good points! The Bechdel test is like a lot of metrics used for measuring whether or not someone’s doing a good job; once they know the metric, they can just aim to pass it in the simplest possible way and completely miss the overall point.
I remember hearing a story about programmers who were paid bonuses for finding and fixing bugs in their co-workers’ code. Immediate result: a black market in “bugs” sprung up.
Also, there are stories which will fail the Bechdel test but are not sexist. For example, imagine if Wander from Shadow of the Colossus were female. There are hardly any other characters in that entire story (Mono, who says nothing; Dormin, who has no specific gender; the Chieftan, who only appears briefly in the intro and outro), so that hypothetical game still wouldn’t pass the test, despite being a very personal, powerful story about the relationship between two women!
The Bechdel test is very useful, but only in a statistical sense; you can get a feeling for how sexist a good-sized story field is by comparing pass rates of the Bechdel test and the reverse Bechdel test, but as say, you learn almost nothing by checking whether or not one single work passes it.
I also agree that Buffy’s a really good example of what the Bechdel test really is about; if you happen to have a story where at least some of the movers and shakers are women, chances are it’s going to have a hard time not passing the test.
DSimon(Quote) (Reply)
Yes! Thank you. I can’t stand when it’s reduced to a litmus test. The original comic is so powerful, because it is the first time you sit down and realize… holy crap. In Alien, the two women discussed the monster. That’s as good as it’s gotten.
Ragnell(Quote) (Reply)
I just had this thought: If a story is really well written and features only well developed characters who advance the plot, then it probably won’t pass the Bechdel test either. Because even when there’s a scene between two women talking about the plot, they are bound to mention the men since they are relevant to the plot too. (Unless there are no men in the story.)
For example: I’ve just rewatched the second series of ‘Being Human’. The first episode is – among other things – about Nina confiding into Annie that she’s become a werewolf and Annie helping her through the first transformation. But since Nina got the curse from George, they mention him repeatedly. So even though these scenes are about Nina & Annie bonding, they don’t pass the Bechdel test.
And the episode hardly passes the reverse Bechdel test, since it starts with George & Mitchell, the two main male characters, talking about George’s girlfriend Nina. And then they talk about vampire politics, which includes the new vampire couple that just moved into town, with one of them being a female vampire.
M.C.(Quote) (Reply)
But you see, they might be talking about men, but they’re also talking about something other than a man. There is no requirement in the Bechdel test that says that men can’t come up in the conversation, so long as the conversation isn’t solely about them
Attackfish(Quote) (Reply)
Weird question about the Bechdel test–does it count if the women talk about a man, but in a non-romantic sense? (Like a supernatural show where the villain-of-the-week is a man, or a crime show where the victim/perp-of-the-week is a man?)
Melissa(Quote) (Reply)
I was curious too, so I did a poll to that effect on my blog last week. Asked if Batwoman discussing her ex lover Renee would fail, or if discussing never-a-possible-love-interest Batman would fail. 67% said that if it was a discussion about a lesbian romantic interest, they’d pass it, but not if it was about a non-romantic male.
Ragnell(Quote) (Reply)
…but they also talk about being a werewolf. Women are not forbidden to talk about men. Where did you get that from?
By the way, I just saw “The Tourist” out of morbid curiosity, and aside from being boring: At 1h 3m, there is a shot of two policewomen in an office. Otherwise, aside from rare background scenes in public spaces, there are no women other than Angelina Jolie in this movie. Not a single fricking one. No housemaids, no female interpol agents, not even arm candy for the bad mobster who “owns all the brothels from here to Novosibirsk”. None. But I can think of about 20 somewhat prominent male figures who at least muttered something or exchanged a look. WTF?
The Other Patrick(Quote) (Reply)
I think they were looking for a single conversation where no men were mentioned?
Attackfish(Quote) (Reply)
One of the points the Bechdel test points out is that the women’s lives, and this the narrative, are male-centric, not just romantically male centric. In narratives the focus of daughters is on their fathers (predominantly, anyway, as with movies like Taken and whatnot) if it is not already on a boyfriend (and often it’s focused on what their fathers think of their boyfriend, with the emphasis on the father/boyfriend relationship).
In the example you mentioned it gets tougher. I mean, the only show like that I can really think of right now is Supernatural, which to the extent of my knowledge may have passed the test once in its entire series. I mean, like this post said it’s hard to get into specific pass-failings because that’s not really the goal. If a crime show has multiple female characters who progress the plot, at some point they SHOULD converse about something other than the men around them because the men will most likely be conversing not about the women around them. In a show like, for example, Chase, which has grown on me, there are multiple male and female main characters (I think 3 men and 2 women). So far, I haven’t been paying attention to whether it passes the Bechdel Test or not. Not because it does all the time and I don’t need to notice, but because both female characters progress the plot at least as much as their male counterparts–and so the test isn’t relevant to that show as I am watching it. If that makes sense and at all answers your question…sorry, I ramble.
The Other Anne(Quote) (Reply)
I always felt that if for example if the ladies were talking about defeating the male big bad, or about the annoying boss, or hunting down a missing man, or whatever, that passed, but if the two of them were discussing and analyzing a male main character’s motivations (especially a or the main male character) in an expository way, because they’re the sensitive women characters, that does not, even if neither of them are potential love interests.
Attackfish(Quote) (Reply)
Yeah, like if Troi and Crusher from TNG are talking about the fact that Captain Picard seems to have gone insane, and is there a medical reason, and what can they do to solve the problem, it would pass because that’s their job. He may be male, but the scene would be identical if Spock and McCoy are talking about Kirk going insane, or Chakotay and the Doctor from Voyager talking abou Janeway going insane. it’s plot driven.
But if they talk about Crusher’s latest energy being boyfriend, then it does not pass. Or if they are talking about Wesley Crusher, because then it’s a woman talking about her son to her female friend, another “my whole life centers around other people” kind of relationship.
Alara Rogers(Quote) (Reply)
This is why I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Star Trek Voyager, no matter how bad the writing sucked.
The fact that, at all times, there were *three* main female characters, and one was the captain, who is the main character in any Trek series (though much less so in the series featuring the black guy captain and the series featuring the woman captain… funny how that worked out!) meant that every episode passed the Bechdel test. There wasn’t a single episode where Janeway and Torres didn’t talk about something related to engineering, as far as I can recall. And both Kes and Seven had strong relationships with Janeway of the student/mentor kind, and Seven and Torres talk to each other about their disagreements on proper engineering practices all the time, too. (Can’t recall that Kes and Torres had much to say to each other, so although I did love Kes and I wish they hadn’t gotten rid of her, I actually liked Seven much better, stupid catsuit and all.)
Although I enjoyed the new Trek movie as an old school Trek fan, it was a slap in the face to my feminist sensibilities… now that I’ve seen Voyager, now that even the crappy Star Trek Enterprise had a strong relationship between T’Pol and Hoshi Sato, how am I supposed to deal with “there is only one woman in this story?” Okay, yeah, there’s actually four, but Gaila’s probably dead, Amanda *is* dead, and Winona vanished from the story as soon as Kirk was born. Couldn’t they have thrown in Chapel or Rand? I mean, even classic Trek, sucktastic for female roles as it was, had a scene of Uhura and Chapel hugging each other and greeting each other like great old friends.
Alara Rogers(Quote) (Reply)
Excellent post, but I’ve got a couple of other things to add:
1. The Bechdel test has a different significance when applied to feature films (particularly mainstream films) than other media, because films have (arguably) the strictest stick-to-the-one-story requirements, since they are meant to be consumed in one sitting and stand alone.
Introductory screenwriting courses will basically tell you that the only characters that really matter are the protagonist and the antagonist. If _either_ of these characters are men, the chances of the film passing the test are significantly reduced. There’s more chance for a pass with a group adventures and multi-plot stories, but still. I bet you’d be hard pressed to find a movie that fails the “reverse Blechdel,” and does not have both a protagonist and antagonist who are female.
Other media–TV, novels, serial comics–have way more time for other kinds of scenes and for sub-plots that feature secondary characters as secondary protagonists. To me, if one of those works fails the Blechdel, despite having fewer constraints than a feature film, its might be a more clear indictment of the work.
2. In the original strip, the fact that “Aliens” is the only passing movie is supposed to be a surprising/ironic punchline, since it’s a military sci-fi horror flick. The movie has become so well-regarded by geeks, movie fans, and popcult feminist critics, that it seems like few people realize how funny that would have been back in the mid-80s.
E Grant(Quote) (Reply)
Well that’s….creepy.
I guess they just wanted to focus on Jolie’s HAWTNESS by ridding the world of almost ALL women so as not to detract from her~?
Casey(Quote) (Reply)
Misinterpreting the Bechdel test is something I always have a problem with because, if the story I’m hashing out isn’t woman-centric, I usually end up trying to shoe-horn a Bechdel-qualifying scene in there via an exposition/plot-progression word dump…but that’s only because I’m a hack.
Casey(Quote) (Reply)
no, well – they start the film with a shot of her ass, but generally, they put Jolie in soft colors and thick make-up and looks horrible and totally against her type. But the film is a mess on so many levels. Still – no women around… and Jolie is of course an undercover cop who fell in love with her mark and deserted the mission, and for the mark she then pretends Depp to be him and falls in love and deserts again, and… you know, women. That’s why she’s happy when, in the end, she’s fired.
The Other Patrick(Quote) (Reply)
What I love: on an article titled “it’s not about passing the Bechdel test”, people are trying to has out what situation would qualify as passing the Bechdel test.
Solution: include multiple, developed, relevant women characters who have any part in advancing the story.
Done.
The Other Patrick(Quote) (Reply)
Let me see if I got this.
So you’re arguing that in order for movies to pass the test, they’d have to have female antagonists and protagonists, and… what? That would blow up the world? Cause the earth to start spinning in reverse? Rip a hole in the space-time continuum and suck life as we know it into another galaxy?
Despite my examples, even when it comes to TV you relegate scenes involving multiple women to secondary status – “other kinds of scenes” and “sub-plots”, as if that’s the only appropriate place for female characters to be. When in fact, scenes involving Buffy or Xena were always by definition primary.
You missed my point like it was a bus and you weren’t even in the right city to catch it.
And I picked Buffy and Xena because they are the only well-known examples that prove women do NOT need to be relegated to “sub-plots” and “other kinds of scenes.”
Jennifer Kesler(Quote) (Reply)
Hmm…I heard that THE COMMON MAN liked The Tourist, but critics are giving it shitty reviews, sounds like it’s completely justified (although I must admit, I thought Angelina Jolie looked the hottest I’ve seen in a while when I watched those TV adverts…she looked delightfully retro).
Casey(Quote) (Reply)
If what you say is true, then, Richard (E Grant)
Why do feature films still manage to pass the “reverse Bechdel” all the time? If either protagonist or antagonist happens to be a woman, then that should be out the window, too, right?
Of course, generally these two are men. And then there’s the best friend. And the comic relief. And the mentor. And the evil henchman. And the skeptical chief. And the random robber. And if you’re lucky, the love interest *and* either the straight-talking prostitute or the protagonist’s mom who then get to reminisce about the hero.
What? Me cynical?
The Other Patrick(Quote) (Reply)
Yeah, I always took the Bechdel as an emblematic guideline about whether a movie gave women anything to do that didn’t center on males in traditional gender-role sense. Strict pass/fail doesn’t give solid results in many instances, but pausing to think about it at all is really the point.
Lindsey(Quote) (Reply)
I love (LOATHED) how he talked about introductory screenwriting classes even though you’ve BEEN IN FILM SCHOOL
DAT MAN-SPLAININ’.
Casey(Quote) (Reply)
Are there even any big Hollywood films with a female protagonist and antagonist?
Sure, there are tv shows, novels, independetn productions, but right now I can’t think of a single blockbuster…
Maybe that’s the (very obvious) solution: make films about women dealing with other women.
Oh wait, that’s what this blog has been saying all over for the past few years, isn’t it?
M.C.(Quote) (Reply)
That makes me think of Tomorrow, When the War Began. (Book or movie, take your pick, it was a pretty faithful adaptation). Because there are eight central character, four boys and four girls, and pretty much all they talk about is the war and each other, I can’t think of a single conversation between two girls that DOESN’T refer to a main. But it’s usually in a strategic context, occasional romantic, and not exactly four girl sitting around all day talking about boyz and babiez. So it probably wouldn’t pass the test in the strictest sense but I think does in a broader sense for featuring a cast of half-females who all have fairly nuanced characters – certainly as nuanced as any of the boys. From memory, Fame is similar in that vein.
I think the Bechdel test is one ofg those things that can be passed in the letter of the law while failing in the spirit, and vice versa, and shouldn’t be taken as a hard-and-fast rule about what constitutes good female characters and what doesn’t.
scarlett(Quote) (Reply)
Yesh, see, if it was a movie about, say, two female resistence fightsers in WWII who spend the whole movie discussing the best way to assasinate Hitler, that would have passed for me. If whatever they did as resistences fights was secondary to discussing their bushands and babies, that wouldn’t have. I think how much of the discussion in is a professional/non-romantic-or-sexual context factors in it although strictly speaking, they’d still be disgussing a men/men.
scarlett(Quote) (Reply)
Thankyou, I’d been wondering whether to see this. Now I needn’t waste the money.
SunlessNick(Quote) (Reply)
Tangled, currently. Which is one of those movies that isn’t quite feminist but passes the Bechdel test with flying colors.
As an aside, I saw The Tourist today, which features exactly ZERO women in even supporting roles other than Angelina Jolie while managing to have about fifty supporting male cast roles with speaking parts.
There wasn’t even a waitress.
The Other Anne(Quote) (Reply)
HEY ME TOO!
What has really helped me, though, is that I’ll write in female characters just because I’m still struggling with my male-centrism that I’ve grown up with, and I’m finding more and more that these extra female characters get more interesting and end up becoming integral.
I’ve needed to do this less and less as I mature as a person and writer and really think about what I am doing, but consciously being “a hack” in a habitual way is helping me get over it. Yay being a hack!
I’m almost to the point where I just dont have to worry about thinking about passing the test anymore in my own writing. Which is awesome. For the longest time I’d convinced myself that I didn’t like movies, books, anything ABOUT female main protagonists–now I’ve realized that reason is because we don’t get those/when they happen the woman centric roles and storylines are very very specifically the “safe female roles and narratives” and really it’s society in general that I don’t like
The Other Anne(Quote) (Reply)
Not really in his defense, but he’s right in saying “I bet you’d be hard pressed to find a movie that fails the “reverse Blechdel,” and does not have both a protagonist and antagonist who are female.”
Because you would indeed be hard-pressed to find a movie that has both a protagonist and antagonist who are female.
But that has nothing to do with your basic argument, right? /sarcasm
Patrick McGraw(Quote) (Reply)
Well: Jennifer’s Body, Catwoman, Charlie`s Angels 2, (Whip it?)
But either way, the Bechdel test is not really that much about single films – yes, single films might end up not having relevant female characters by virtue of their set-up. Like a comic called “Y: the Last Man” about the last surviving male human will be hard pressed to have more than one guy in it.
But that’s a single film, not the template which all too many films have been based on. If there are only exceptions, that’s to be expected.
But y’all know this, so why do I write?
The Other Patrick(Quote) (Reply)
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