Movies Passing the Bechdel Test for Sexism Earned More in 2013
- Thread starter StewShearerOld
- Start date
Recommended Videos
You might want to educate yourself. If you knew what the Bechdel test was before criticising it for reasons which are laughable in light of what the test is, then your post might make sense. Goddamn, that has to be the most ignorant bit of flaming I've seen tonight. And it raises some legitimate insight into some good female characters (Careful, you'll become a crazy feminist before long).The Dubya said:
The Bechdel Test.
Movie has at least 2 female characters.
Who converse.
About something apart from a man.
Not the Bechdel Test.
Movie is feminist.
Movie has strong female characters.
Movie represents women well.
Women, being 50% of the fucking population are depicted as such in the film.
Women have agency within the story.
Women dominate the story.
The story is about a woman/group of women.
A compulsory task to be fulfilled to live in our progressive liberal dictatorship which we shall enforce by questioning societal norms which actually do have dominance.
What the Bechdel test is for:
Demonstrating what was, and continues to be a trend in film:
That despite women being a significant proportion of human population, they are under-represented in film, particularly in ways which are not utilitarian to a male-centric stroyline. That's all. It's a starting point. Because how fucking ridiculous is it that so few movies can have that? Can you imagine if the situation were reversed across movies? How strange that would look?
As pointed out previously: A pornographic stripping sequence where two women advocated in conversation for misogyny would pass the Bechdel test. Lesbian porn can pass the Bechdel test. The test is incredibly easy, and the failure of most media to pass it at a time was indicative of a problem within media as a whole, not individual pieces of media.
Not necessarily. My point was that the Bechdel test didn't really have any effect on success in and of itself, pass or fail. Many films that pass do very well at the box office, as do many that fail.Zachary Amaranth said:
Although you have reminded me that I wanted to make the point that having female representation within films clearly isn't box office poison, as seems to be a common excuse for the majority of films featuring predominantly male characters.
My opinion on it is basically that passing or failing the Bechdel test won't directly impact on sales, but the conclusion from that should be that there is no good reason to not include wider representation of females.
Female characters can talk about men all they want, all the test requires is that they have one conversation about something else at some point during the movie.Lightknight said:
OT: I'm really not sure what to do with this information, and as others have said the article, and particularly the title, is poorly worded. The Bechdel test is not a test for sexism, not all movies that fail it are sexist, some of those that pass it are, etc. It seems those points need repeating, as a lot of people don't seem to get them (perhaps understandably given the title).
If this can be used to counter the common argument that less male-centric films won't make money, then obviously that's great and I hope we see that sort of attitude eroded in the coming years.
Other than that, this information doesn't really say a whole lot. I'm baffled as to why so many people seem to think it's a bad thing though. Seriously, nothing about this article need provoke any amount of hostility. At all.
To chime in on this a little, I've seen it pass rounds that a "Mako Mori" test needs to be done as well. It's something along the lines of a female main character, who gets her own side story that has nothing to do with the main cast. I've probably mistranslated it as I can't find the original source, but it's something along these lines.StewShearer said:
So what is it then if not a (admittedly extremely rough) test for sexism. Or at least a simple test that gives you a general picture for whether of not it is written with some kind of female viewpoint.Zachary Amaranth said:
It's a rule of thumb, you couldn't make a uncontroversial test for whether a film is sexist or not (or homophobic or racist)
It's not meant to be used to assess individual films, but to create a snapshot of how women are being represented in film as a whole.K12 said:
Whether an individual film passes or fails the test is pretty meaningless - there's any number of perfectly good reasons why a film might fail, it certainly doesn't have to mean it's sexist. Likewise, just because a film passes doesn't mean it's "feminist" or woman-friendly.
However, when a massive majority of all films being made fail, that says something about how women are being represented in our society. That's how the test is meant to be used.
It means a lot of people clicked on the article, which I think was the point.Johnny Novgorod said:
People commenting on this thread should know the true reason for this test that is opposite of what is said in the article they are commenting and ignore what is said in article and instead find the truth on their own and comment on it? your asking too much of people.thaluikhain said:
It doesn't. As the article says, the movie fails the test. The point was that even though it fails, Peter Jackson et al made a deliberate effort to include more women. It just serves to emphasise the point that, despite what a lot of people seem to think, the Bechdel test doesn't say much about any individual movie in terms of sexism.Sleekit said:
Excepting, of course, it doesn't say anything about women being objectified or demeaned or not, even remotely.dantoddd said:that test is terrible and the way the test used is even more terrible. Any test that remotely says "fast and the furious" does anything other than objectify and demean women is just wrong. fail at so many levels.
No, no it's not.StewShearer said:
Also how much did the Hobbit make($664 million)? And how much did Elysium make($268 million)? Hmm...I guess I can also cherry pick my movies to support my conclusion.
it's test for sexism. it should be able to capture the most obvious forms of sexism. otherwise, what's the point?thaluikhain said:Excepting, of course, it doesn't say anything about women being objectified or demeaned or not, even remotely.dantoddd said:that test is terrible and the way the test used is even more terrible. Any test that remotely says "fast and the furious" does anything other than objectify and demean women is just wrong. fail at so many levels.
How did Man of Steel pass? There are three female characters of note in the movie: bad guy, Lois, and Mrs. Kent. Guess who they talk about.