I haven’t written anything before about the Bechdel test which in a nutshell is a way of determining if women matter in a film. The test was designed by cartoonist Alison Bechdel and it has become legendary.
Here are the criteria:
1. It has to have at least two women in it
2. Who talk to each other
3. About something besides a man
If a movie passes this test, to me, and lots of other people it is a movie I would potentially want to see. The test is not a test of greatness or even content, it’s just a determination of how women are valued in the script.
Screenwriter John August (Go, Titan AE, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) came across this new video that’s gone viral about how few films really pass the Bechdel Test and he looked at the films he has written and it gave him pause.
Here’s what he came up with:
Looking back through my movies, I’m struck by how rarely the female characters actually do talk to each other. In Big Fish, it’s only a brief moment with Sandra and Josephine. In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, it’s a throwaway moment between Violet and Veruca. Titan A.E. fails the test unless you know that the alien Stith is technically female.In each of these cases, I had to spend a few minutes just to come up with these (admittedly slight) examples.
And he asks:
Does acknowledging the situation change anything? Maybe. I’ll certainly ask myself these questions about future scripts. For now, my upcoming projects all seem to pass, but they have a familiar paradigm: a single main female who mostly interacts with the men in the story.
Acknowledging there is a problem is the first step towards fixing it.
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I thought about this and came to the conclusion that a film centered on a strong female character, “Trucker,” does not pass the test. It fails in the women talking to each other about something other than men.
His is a lone voice crying in the wilderness. I would like to know just what it would take for studio and network bosses to wake up to the fact that more than half the people on the planet are female.
Acknowledging the situation helps only if you’re willing to keep it in mind on your future projects. It can’t just be something you ponder in the moment and then completely forget about it when it matters.
I think he should ponder how it would be in a reversed world. Where every movie he went to was about women. Where every movie advertisement might show a man, but not a real person, just a man-shaped cutout that served the plot, an object for the real people in the film, THE WOMEN. A world where the stories were all about women, famous women and brave women, women struggling with their choices and their psyches, women having all the fun and solving all the problems.
A world where none of the characters in his entertainment were like him; a world where there was nobody he could really identify with, nobody to serve as a role model when he was growing up, nobody showing the hard parts and the good parts of the life he and the men he knows have to live. Where in fact all the characters who were like him were incomplete, were diminished, were limited, were controlled.
And a world where, when he complained about this, all the women (and even some men) laughed and told him it was just what the public wanted, that nobody would pay to see men’s stories, it wasn’t intentional or discrimination or anything.
Hey, it’s cool to see this website discussing these criteria, but, as Alison Bechdel has acknowledged, she did not originate the criteria, and it should really be called the Bechdel-Wallace test.
Ultimately the problem lies with the studios, as usual, as most screenwriters are reluctant to turn in female driven/oriented scripts that won’t sell period.
Kai, he’s gay, so I’m guessing he already knows what that’s like.
First: Respect to John August for writing about this on his blog. It might seem like a pebble in the ocean, but sometimes that’s how change starts. Side note: His blog rocks. I appreciate an artist like August who is so willing to share their craft with others.
Second: Credit where it’s due – Alison Bechdel mentioned this video on her blog, and she gave credit to the person she got this idea from. Dunno if I can embed links so: http://dykestowatchoutfor.com/hey-2 Or basically what @Val said.
@Kai Jones – that is an awesome summary of the film making world we live in. I tip my funny hat to you. :-)
Great point Ekpo. I’m an aspiring screenwriter and often feel trepidacious about crafting my scripts around sole female leads because they’re a harder sell.
Emily–I didn’t know that, but I think it’s less relevant than you do. In my experience knowledge or even experience of one kind of discrimination doesn’t necessarily lead to awareness of one’s own privilege in other areas, or sympathy for those who suffer under a different discrimination. As a man he has immense privilege, even though he might also suffer from lack of appropriate role models in the area of sexual attraction.
This is so very interesting and inspiring to me. I enjoy crafting stories about women in my scripts. I feel there there is so much more flexibility women female leads as long as we stay away from stereotypes. The phrase “strong woman” is often overused when referring to female characters, but if it meant complex, layered, dysfunctional, committed, vulnerable and smart, then I’d say my scripts female characters are “strong women.” I put my last three scripts up against the Bechdel test and I’m glad to say they passed with flying colors. Would love to get a 2nd or third opinion, particularly on my current short film, “Legend of Black Lotus” in which the central relationship is between mother, daughter and God.
^
To Chris Evans
I remember reading somewhere that Meryl Streep once wrote a piece for a movie magazine back in 1990 where she criticised the industry for not crafting enough strong female lead roles throughout the year and she’d spoken to many screenwriters back then prior to penning the piece and a majority apparently told her that they feared that they couldn’t sell their scripts with female lead characters.
Bear in mind that this was 20 YEARS AGO and already the studios were clearly sending out the message that they had a quota of female driven scripts they would purchase (basically if they saw potential Oscar bait for the December period than yes but anyone offering them, presumably dramatic, scripts that if filmed would have filled out every month of the year would be refused).
@Kai on June 6, what you said. I vividly remember one episode of Northern Exposure that illustrated how the male side trumps the gay (minority) side. Can I also reiterate that it’s NOT enough to have A female lead character? I.e., by definition, a single female character, no matter how complex and kick-ass, fails the Bechdel Test. Anyone care to compile a list of films that fail the Reverse Bechdel Test? My contribution to the list: Whip It.
@grrljock: The original 1930s version of “The Women,” of course.
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