Does the Bechdel Test Work?
I have, by now, addressed many issues with the representation of women in film on the "Women in Film" page. From the knowledge you've gained about the Bechdel test from the "About the Test" page, do you think that it will be effective at weeding out films that contain these issues?
Restatement of My Thesis: While the Bechdel test makes valid claims about the under-representation of women, it does not even begin to address the multitude of issues concerning depictions of women in film and their harmful real world outcomes.
Now let's take a look at each of those issues and see if I am correct, or if the Bechdel test will do an effective job of pointing them out. Feel free to refer back to the "Women in Film" page for a refresher on each of these issues.
Restatement of My Thesis: While the Bechdel test makes valid claims about the under-representation of women, it does not even begin to address the multitude of issues concerning depictions of women in film and their harmful real world outcomes.
Now let's take a look at each of those issues and see if I am correct, or if the Bechdel test will do an effective job of pointing them out. Feel free to refer back to the "Women in Film" page for a refresher on each of these issues.
What it Catches.
Under-representation
The major thing that the Bechdel test does well is catch films that completely under-represent women. The first stipulation of the test, of course, is that there must be at least two women in the film, and I don't think that two female crowd members would count as meeting this quota.
Second to Men
Since, according to the Bechdel test, the female characters in a film must have names and talk to each other about something other than a man, it is difficult to include female characters only as sexual interludes for men and still have the film pass. After all, how can a character be involved in an affair or attraction to a man and nothing else and say nothing about it? There is, of course, the possibility that the female has such a small part that she is unnamed or has no speaking lines at all. In general, however, the Bechdel test does a decent job at calling a film out on containing only secondary female characters.
What it Misses.
The Bechdel test, in my opinion, misses pretty much everything else. It does not point out occurrences of:
- The false "strong" female character (heteronormativity & heroine)
- Female characters who are depicted as inherently weak or unintelligent compared to the male characters involved
- Female characters who are so dependent that they seem to require a man (and not a particular man) to take care of them or to be happy
- Female characters who are depicted as inherently materialistic or conniving
- Doesn't account for films that may have a strong female character, but no others for a good reason
"Strong" Female Character
The 2004 film Catwoman just shows the intensity with which the Bechdel test is able to fail. The movie, which passes the test, stars Halle Berry as Catwoman, a superhero/anti-hero of sorts who is both physically fit and physically capable. She defeats men in multiple scenes, and all of these empowering traits could easily earn her a spot as a strong female character in the minds of some people. Despite all of these things, however, she his highly oversexualized, to the extent that she wears black leather, carries a whip, and her outfit consists of a bra, black leather straps across her bare stomach, and ripped up see-through pants. Just watch the trailer below:
Weak & Unintelligent
Though the 1987 film The Princess Bride does not pass the Bechdel test, I use it as an example anyways because it would have been so simple to add one or two lines between the character of Buttercup and Miracle Max's wife or the Queen about a trivial topic that did not include men, allowing it to pass, without removing any of the abundant material depicting women as unintelligent and weak. The clip below goes to show just how physically weak and slow thinking the character of Buttercup is: enough that while her true love is being attacked and partially eaten by an enormous rat, she simply stands and watches for the first minute, screams for his help the very second it turns her direction, and, when she finally gains a weapon, she only nudges at the creature with it, and then falls to the ground even though nothing has tripped her.
Materialistic or Conniving and Dependent on Men
The 2001 film Legally Blonde is a good example of the failure of the Bechdel test on the fronts of both the depictions of women as materialistic and as dependent on men. This film is supposedly about a woman (Elle) who stands up against the stereotypes against women (particularly blonde ones) and works hard to prove them wrong. However, through it's other female characters, it portrays them as stereotypically materialistic and dependent on men. In the clip below, two women care nothing about the intelligence or character of a young man, but only his appearance and ability to please sexually. Their response to him after Elle steps in also implies that they require a man who fits these qualifications to make them happy.
Number of Women
The 2013 film Gravity also points out a fatal flaw in the Bechdel test's methods. Gravity does not pass the test despite the fact that it's main character (and practically only character) is a woman who, time and time again, proves herself capable and intelligent, not to mention the fact that she has become a practicing astronaut in the first place (which is difficult). The reason for this failure is because the film is basically a one-woman show, and therefore includes no second female character for her to communicate with. Here is an example of her capacity for staying calm and collected in the face of adversity:
Conclusion
In conclusion, I believe that my original thesis is correct. While the Bechdel test points out many occurrences of under-representation of women in film and generally assures that they have basic decency of portrayal and importance of role, it doesn't pay attention to false representations of strong female characters, expose instances of unfairly weak, unintelligent, materialistic, or conniving female roles, or address the dependence on men that many female characters display. The Women's Media Center article Moving Beyond the Bechdel Test states,
"While the test has been effective in raising moviegoers' awareness of the under- and misrepresentation of female characters, Bechdel never intended it to be used as an actual measure of the quality of a film's portrayals. Others, perhaps enamored with the test's simplicity and lacking other tools, have now systematically applied it to hundreds of films, often with unreliable and curious results. Films such as Gravity, with a sole but prominent female protagonist, fail the test, while films such as American Hustle pass, in spite of their heavy sexualization of female characters. The test does not require that females serve as protagonists or even as major characters who exert some influence in the story. As such, the test sets absurdly low standards for portrayals of women." (Moving Beyond the Bechdel Test)
I tend to agree with the uncertainty of the test's accuracy displayed by this article. It is unusual, I think, the amount of popularity the test has gained considering its inherent flaws and lack of thoroughness. The article Sexism Movie Ratings by Tom Lawson in the magazine "The New Internationalist" discusses how Four cinemas and a TV station in Sweden have actually adopted the Bechdel test as a requirement for a film to receive an "A" rating. (Lawson 1) While this system is certainly not a bad set of standards to require for highly rated movies, it does hold a danger. It seems that, given the Bechdel's Test's insufficiencies, if it is put on a pedestal this way, the movies that it passes will be also, but many of these films will still be unworthy of such an honor.
It seems that the best way to fix this would be to expand the Bechdel test, to add to it in order to make it more effective and foolproof. The Women's Media Center article suggests a few additions that can be made to the Bechdel test in order for it to become more effective at recognizing films that misrepresent women. The questions it recommends be added to the existing three are:
Though these questions require much more abstract answers than the existing ones, I agree that attention to the centrality of female characters, whether or not they are able to make their own choices, and the depth of their character would assist in catching many more offenders of proper female representation.
It seems that the best way to fix this would be to expand the Bechdel test, to add to it in order to make it more effective and foolproof. The Women's Media Center article suggests a few additions that can be made to the Bechdel test in order for it to become more effective at recognizing films that misrepresent women. The questions it recommends be added to the existing three are:
- "Are the female characters central to the story?"
- "Do the female characters have agency?"
- "Are the female characters multidimensional?" (Moving Beyond the Bechdel Test)
Though these questions require much more abstract answers than the existing ones, I agree that attention to the centrality of female characters, whether or not they are able to make their own choices, and the depth of their character would assist in catching many more offenders of proper female representation.