Sounds easy, but you’d be surprised at … The Bechdel Test or the Mo Movie Measure is a type of litmus test to assess the presence of women in movies. The Bechdel Test -- created by Alison Bechdel in her 1985 comic, "Dykes to Watch Out For" -- is a well-known measurement of gender bias in movies. The Bechdel test is pretty basic: Does this movie have a scene where two women with names talk about something other than a guy? feminism. As a reminder, the Bechdel-Wallace Test measures the representation of women in fictional films and television. The point of the test is not “movies that pass this are feminist”—it’s “this is the absolute base point of whether or not women are their own people in this movie.” I attempt to go a little further each week with a deeper analysis. 7 Iron Man 2, 2010 And Iron Man 3, 2013. To pass the Bechdel Test, a work of fiction must: Have two women talking to each other; About something other than a man; And also those women should have names ; It doesn’t seem like that’s too much to ask for, but apparently it is. The comic strip that popularized the test was titled "The Rule," and it says that to pass the test the movie must have three things. Image Credits: Disney. Featured Image Source. "The passing grade for Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone for example is based on this conversation: It asks whether a work features at least two women who talk to each other about something other than a man. According to the community voted-upon Bechdel test website, every Harry Potter movie except for Goblet of Fire passes the test. In 2019, all movies with more than five characters should pass this test easily. There are estimates that around half of all films never make it through all three tiny stages of the test. The Bechdel test is short test that is used as a way “to call attention to gender inequality”, and as a challenge to the sexist way that women are under-represented in films. We took a look at the top-rated movies on Rotten Tomatoes to evaluate how many pass the Bechdel-Wallace Test. The caveat is that there is always some disagreement about what exactly constitutes having a conversation "about something other than a man. Written with: Madalena Derzi. It has at least 2 named women in it Not only does the film pass the Bechdel Test with flying colours, it could also be considered to pass the lesser-known "DuVernay Test." Edited by: Carolina Grassmann. Here’s 11 of them. Cinderella talks with both her step-sisters and step-mothers – all of whom are named – about a lot of things which do not involve a man. Out of 41 movies, 23 pass the Bechdel test (although 9 of those are very dubious passes), The total "points" that Disney earned is 18.5 out of 41, leading to a whopping score of 45%. In a 1985 strip titled "The Rule”, an unnamed female character says that she only goes to a movie if it satisfies the following requirements: The conversation needs to be about something besides a man. Plenty of movies that don't pass the Bechdel Test are still feminist, which may be a sign that an update is necessary. The Bechdel test, Also known as the Bechdel–Wallace test, is a test used for works of fiction (usually movies), named after the American cartoonist Alison Bechdel. The Bechdel Test has been doing exactly that for 35 years. It may not have achieved all it intended to, but if we become more conscious about the content we consume, we can ensure that almost all future releases pass it. The Venn diagram between kid-friendly movies and those that pass the Bechdel test’s bare minimum standards may feel slim, but there are options other than “Frozen,” which most of us have seen enough times by now to act out (at an appropriate social distance) for the neighbors. 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