Refine See titles to watch instantly, titles you haven't rated, etc 79 titles 1. The Bechdel test is named after Alison Bechdel who introduced the concept as part of her Dykes to Watch Out For comic series in 1985, but she attributes it to her friend Liz Wallace, who attributed it to Virginia Woolf. Despite having an array of fierce and funny female characters, the last movie of the Harry Potter installments disappointingly doesn't feature a single conversation between the women. The titular named Lara is the only named female in this movie. TH3 RUNDOWN. Summit Entertainment. Books? 6. You can see most of the code used for this and the previous post here. In 1985, American cartoonist Alison Bechdel. 95 percent of the characters are female, and they communicate with each other constantly throughout the series about non-male-centric topics. It's worth noting though that this is in a series that shows women's asses at every opportunity & had gold-painted dancing girls earlier. The women of this show are complex and the show does a wonderful job of passing the Bechdel test, focusing on their friendships, their careers, their kids. Anyone else feel like going for a little drive? Married With Children (Peggy-Marcy and Peggy-Kelly) and Scrubs (mostly Elliot-Carla) fall down between steps 2 and 3, meaning they often had female characters talk to one another, but in many cases this was only about a male character. Sutton, Kat, and Jane are rising HBICs (aka head bitches in charge) in their industries. 2.3 OTHER DIVERSITY TESTS Dobby and Sophie have several conversations with each other for example and theres multiple other examples. REVIEWS. Disney Plus. This show will be missed. As the title lets on, Dead to Me isnt a light-hearted show. For a movie to pass The Bechdel Test, it must contain just one thing - a. Why? At this point in time, the SGO team is fully remote, and we are located across the United States. A lot of episodes do pass, but not as many as youd think, and only barely. Younger is a marathon-worthy series about a fortysomething who pretends to be in her twenties in order to break back into publishing. All the Charlize Theron. What Insecure does better than most shows is showcasing real vulnerability and raw honesty, and therein lies its beauty. And to be clear, passing doesnt mean the movies good or bad. 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. Alright, now were heading into the darker category. Id think similar reasoning would apply to the Sopranos, the Wire, The Shield, etc. Through the artful presentation and deconstruction of implicit and explicit social mores, filmmaker Julia Ducournau forces us to confront the animal in all of us. (Though it should be called the Bechdel-Wallace test, according to the lesbian cartoonist Alison Bechdel, who helped create it.) Growing up, TV was mostly used as a way to entertain oneself. The best movies that pass the Bechdel Test are the ones that really, truly, pass with all the flying colors. They might as well be talking to themselves (or, more likely, the audience). And, apparently, successfully robbing banks is one of the things they can accomplish together. Broad City created by Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson super modern and funny. We love this list and think many of them go farther than just passing the Bechdel test. Other than that every conversation I remember was about Hank or Walter. * I cant remember Uhura ever talking to Rand or Nurse Chapel.**. More than that, all the women are fiercely strong and morally questionable, presenting a version of women not often seen in the cinema. The percentage of women working as directors on the top 100 films retreated from 16% in 2020 to 12% in 2021. Thank goodness theres one more season to go. 4. We are now operating in a virtual space, but we can still honor and name the physical spaces we all inhabit. #ForeverAlone. As the first woman to become pregnant in years, she carries an extremely precious cargo and faces danger on all sides. In some cases, my processing couldnt pick up the scene breaks, or the transcripts didnt contain any; these episodes are each treated as one long scene, which makes it easier to pass this first step, but only slightly easier to pass the other steps than when scenes are properly detected. The Bechdel Test, if youre not familiar with it, is a benchmark for movies developed by Alison Bechdel in 1985. The Bechdel Test - Everything You Need To Know No Film School 116K subscribers Subscribe 150K views 4 years ago This video essay is part of the "Everything You Need to Know" series created. She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. The Good FightWe were fans of The Good Wife, and when The Good Fight aired, we were excited to see some of our favorite characters back and connecting with each other in fascinating and exciting ways. To pass this step I looked for a three-line sequence. Shes not like those other girls because shes basically one of the guys. Ghostbusters (The one with all the women)We loved the 2016 Ghostbusters. She talks to her father, her boyfriend, the security guard at her fathers bankand not a single woman. Toy Story is such a beloved film to so many, but it unfortunately doesn't pass the test. TV shows tend to run far longer than movies and thus, most of them end up passing the Bechdel Test. Land acknowledgements are a way for us to reflect upon the duality of our work while we work within our team, our community, and our client organizations to promote greater inclusivity and abolish inequities, we ourselves still perpetuate and contribute to various forms of historical and present oppression. The test asks whether a film features at least two women talking to each other about something other than a man. By continuing to browse, you agree to the use of cookies. Ombudsman, and our staff operate within the Code of Practice. It shows what women can do when theyre on the same side with the same goal. For fun, how about shows that not only regularly pass the normal test but fail the reverse Bechdel Test? Currently, only the titles of the movies are searchable. US cartoonist Alison Bechdel came up with the test in a 1985 comic strip: to pass, a film must have two female characters who speak about something other than a man. Others such as Bridgerton, The Nevers, and Yellowjackets make the list, too. It's commonly used as a commentary about the lack of female representation in Hollywood. Votes: 13,610 | Gross: $1.60M. This test, put forth by cartoonist Alison Bechdel in a comic strip from 1985, posits . The test is named for Alison Bechdel, creator of the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For, who made it known to the world with this strip. The singer reveals how grueling life was on the road. The Bechdel Test is a way of evaluating the representation of women in film. The movie: The 2016 Ghostbusters (opens in new tab) film is technically the third film in the franchise, but actually serves as a reboot, replacing the four main male characters with female alternatives - played by Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones. The data Im using are the same as introduced in this previous post: episodes transcripts for most episodes of seven major sitcoms from the last 30 years. Plus, the entire film is about a young woman and her pregnancy (which could save the world), and the fact that the main character is a man is more incidental than anything else. CONTACT. (Episode III does still fail, though. But alas, many Marvel movies do not actually pass the Bechdel Test. Its exciting to see them roll up with their emotional Away bags and yet be really nervous to unpack them in front of each other. But the shows that dont pass the test are about men who already have established careers, and so the relationships between women fall to the wayside. Grace and FrankieHow often do we get to see older women rise up against adversity with a whole lot of laughter and a whole lot of love? When they do interact its usually to talk about their place in society with regards to the men and their plans. It's a quiz developed in 1985 by graphic novelist Alison Bechdel and her friend Liz Wallace that reveals just how sexist (or not) any given work of fiction might be. The movie also includes Jess sister Pinky and a whole host of other named women on the football team, and besides that, the basic message of the movie is that women can do anything even become professional footballers. You can change your settings or, 10 surprising films that fail the feminist Bechdel test, Mary Berry Cooks / Headline Publishing Group, These women have a conversation with each other. Then again, its possible that the nurses exchanged at least a few lines complaining about their living conditions, talking about the war, etc., and a conversation about treating a patient who happens to be a man is arguably not really a conversation about a man. Were there any women on F-Troop aside from Wrangler Jane? The Bechdel Test is a simple test to see if a work of fiction passes the feminist [] There's a third named female character, Agent Maria Hill (Colbie Smulders), but she only directs orders to her staff and there's no dialogue. This usually occurs when Elaine overlaps briefly with a minor female character in a scene. Spoiler alert: Her secret doesnt stay a secret, and when her real age is revealed, she has to figure out how to repair broken relationships. Enter the Bechdel Test, which was created in 1985 by cartoonist Alison Bechdel in a now-famous comic strip.Essentially, the Bechdel Test is a metric which determines whether a movie or TV series pays ample attention to its women characters. Mary Berry Cooks / Headline Publishing Group / Headline Publishing Group. New York? How it passes: Ghost World (opens in new tab) is basically all about the friendship between super sarcastic teen Enid and her best friend Becky. . If youre behind on this one, too, then Im honestly kinda surprised you even know what movies are. After a chat of what The Hunger Games actually means, Katniss comforts her sister Primrose, whos had a bad dream. Advertisement How to. To pass, a movie must have two named women converse about something other than a man. The test is named after and . It covers domestic violence, marriage hardships, and the misconception of perfection. Having acquired hundreds of sitcom episode transcripts, I can apply the test programmatically to each episode of these . Whats not to love? These 11 iconic films, including "To All the Boys I've Loved Before" and "Mean Girls," pass with flying colors. Kate McKinnon was everything. Stay tuned by signing up for our newsletter! Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: PartII. The movie, which tells the story of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, features a few female characters, but they never talk to each other. Seinfeld, Frasier, and The Office have more male than female main characters, so inevitably there are many more male-male than female-female conversations. Most are finally passing the Bechdel test, aka a test that analyzes a scene where two or more women talk about anything else other than men. Big Littles Lies also brings drastically different women together who have one thing in common: Their kids are in the same class. In 10 hours, not one interaction? del test/n. PH: (01) 6489130, Lo-Call 1890 208 080 or email: info@presscouncil.ie. Dead To MeJen and Judy are complicated. Women are not always these well-dressed, confident, and successful creatures; sometimes were just uncomfortable in our own skin. None of the women in the movie ever talk to each other. The Duchess of York casts "no judgment" toward her nephew. And this is despite the fact that Cate Blanchett is Liv Tyler's grandmother in the film, so it would have been completely possible for them to schedule some sort of visit together to say goodbye in case Middle Earth went down in flames! Its just something that makes you think how few fully developed female characters there are. A lot of Hollywood films fail this test miserably and portray women in a sexist and unfair way. In a film about violence and mafiosos, Karen ( Lorraine Bracco) and Rosie ( Illeana Douglas) manage to squeeze in a Bechdel Test pass with a conversation about Florida. It originated in a comic strip by Bechdel in 1985. Her pregnancy is discussed with the surprisingly sympathetic assassin Karen Kim, plus her last talk with O-Ren Ishii in the snow in particular is touching as they gradually admit their respect for each other. In order to pass the test, a film must feature at least two women who speak to each other on a subject that does not revolve around men. It has a lot of well written three dimensional women, but theyre spread far apart from each other. In 1985, American cartoonist Alison Bechdel. She joined GamesRadar+ in 2017, revitalizing the news coverage and building new processes and strategies for the US team. Director and Producer James Cameron first wrote the script in 1994 and it took a whole 15 years before the film was made and released. We encourage you to, Nine Recent TV Shows and Movies That Pass the Bechdel Test, have a look at this article to see who sits behind the camera, Ghostbusters (The one with all the women), How to measure the impact of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Training, Understanding Social Identities in the Workplace. Theyre flawed, complicated, and sometimes make horrible decisions. There are also a handful of episodes that do not pass either test (grey). Starring Jeon YeoBeen (as Hong JiHyo) and Afterschool's NaNa (as Huh BoRa), "Glitch" is a dazzling celebration of female friendships and WLW relationships, and the theme is brought out with the utmost grace and delicate nuance. The Bechdel Test is a metric used for measuring how women are represented in a given film. policy. supports the work of the Press Council of Ireland and the Office of the Press Thankfully, by Toy Story 3 Pixar had included a conversation between female characters that involved something other than men. Heres how it works. Popularized by cartoonist Alison Bechdel in a 1985 strip called Dykes to Watch Out For and inspired by Virginia Woolf, the test measures the representation of women in film, television, books . In order to pass, a film must feature at least two women on screen talking to each other about. GamesRadar+ is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. (Episodes with scene breaks not properly detected are excluded from the step 1 calculation; this applies to all The Office episodes, so no step 1 point is drawn.). Users are reminded that they are fully responsible for their own The WitcherAnd our second fantasy series is The Witcher, which, despite a lot of male energy (wayy more um, cleavage, in this one), does indeed pass the Bechdel test a few times Yennefer and Tissaias complicated relationship, as well as Ciri and Eithns short time together, and honestly probably more but were still working our way through this story (hey, we still have pandemic time to watch!). Absolutely. As with previous Ghostbusters movies, the busters are tracking down some ghosts who are wreaking havoc in New York. Miramax Films. Its about a group of young gay men in San Francisco and the only named female character is Doris. The rise in the overall number is due to increases in the percentages of women working as executive producers and producers. It could have been so easy to write just ONE more female into the story. Miramax Films The world has changed since the Bechdel-Wallace Test was created Hulu When The Bechdel-Wallace Test first appeared in 1985, the world was an entirely different place. Paramount Pictures. She is complicated and shes funnier than most (all?) Proving that women . Well, surprisingly hard to manage it seems, with up to 50% of films failing the test. Considering the fact that the entire population of New Zealand is in these movies, it kinda seems statistically impossible. Um, no. There's only two named female characters in the whole of the 2008 Oscar winner of Best Picture: Jamal's mother (who dies early on), and Jamal's love interest. While Enid occupies herself with finding him a girlfriend, she and Becky grow further apart. Some Western animated shows would fail a reverse. TV Show Recaps; TV Reviews; TV Lists; TV News & Trailers; TV Features; The L Word; The L Word: Generation Q; . Aaron Sorkin, the films writer, actually commented on the lack of three-dimensional female characters in an interview with Stephen Colbert, saying that the women are prizes. InsecureThe real love between Issa and Molly gives us all the feels like all of them. The Bechdel test is one of the most common ways that a movie or TV show's female representation can be judged. Washington Post, many films and TV shows fail the Bechdel Test (Rosenberg, 2015). Easily passing the Bechdel test, Dead to Me brings together two women with completely different ways of being in the world together to deal with some wild bananas weird stuff. The measure sometimes is enhanced by adding that the two female characters be named in the film. Irish sport images provided by Inpho Photography This Canadian-made comedy about friends navigating motherhood will have you laughing out loud. Definition Of Bechdel Test. According to . That said, I wouldnt be terribly surprised if MASH** didnt pass even that loose version of the test. However, since her name is never mentioned in the film, it fails the test. Needless to say, a lot of superhero movies fail the test. Shes also right pretty much all of the time and her male captains need to listen to her more often. The three female mathematicians in the 1960s (played masterfully by Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and Janelle Monae) rarely talk about a man, focusing instead on their goals, their work, and the obstacles that they overcome every step of the way. However, its not the case that these shows were full of male-male conversations without female involvement: as seen by the fact that no show lies below 0.8 on the y-axis, these shows had as many, or almost as many, male-female conversations, as male-male conversations. 10 Films and TV Shows that pass Bechdel's Test. But seriously, I cant remember two female characters even talking to each other. How to use Bechdel Test in a sentence. She works closely with Abbey Whalen (Darby Stanchfield), and has numerous confrontations with First Lady (Bellamy Young). created content and their own posts, comments and submissions and fully and effectively warrant All rights reserved. Should it be dismissed entirely? The 25 best movies that pass the Bechdel Test with flying colors By Lauren O'Callaghan, Louise Blain, Zoe Delahunty-Light, Rachel Weber, Sam Loveridge last updated May 06, 2022 The best movies. Toy Story is such a beloved film to so many, but it unfortunately doesn't pass the test. Mary Berry Cooks / Headline Publishing Group Paramount Pictures There were several recurring nurse characters who had names, but when they talked to each other then IIRC it was usually about the male characters. A few years ago, we compiled a list of recent TV shows and movies that pass the Bechdel test and thought it was time to revisit this with a focus on TV we live in a golden age of television! Lauren OCallaghan. First, the film must have at least two female characters. The movie: The all-singing, all-dancing movie adaptation of the stage musical Chicago (opens in new tab) sees Rene Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Richard Gere sing their hearts out as two female jazz stars/murderesses and the amoral lawyer trying to get them off. So if you want to watch a TV show that passes the Bechdel test and shows the full picture of what it means to be a woman, try turning on one of these TV shows about female friendship below. The Bechdel test is a method used to determine the representation of women in film. The Wheel of TimeIn a rare turn of events, we have one of two fantasy series on the list! Id guess most Orange is the New Black episodes would fail. How it passes: Both the main characters are named women, who talk to each other a lot about football, their families, and yes, occasionally boys. How it passes: Although we dont hear The Brides real name until about halfway through the second movie, her codename is enough to set her apart as a named character. Content copyright Journal Media Ltd. 2023 Registered in Dublin, registration number: The readers of Dykes to Watch Out For (where the test originated) probably love this show. This was probably intended to refer to a one-on-one conversation, but in sitcoms often a larger group of characters are present in a scene. This site uses cookies. Issa Rae embodies all of these qualities in her character, Issa. HBOs teen show Euphoria shocked viewers with its extremely adult storylines. The Bechdel test is a simple test to evaluate films (and other media) for portrayals of women. Then again, its possible that the nurses exchanged at least a few lines complaining about their living conditions, talking about the war, etc., and a conversation about treating a patient who happens to be a man is arguably not really a conversation about a man. While theres been some improvement, much work is left to do. How it passes: Brilliantly, theres not a romantic relationship in sight in Ghostbusters. 5. But it easily passed the Bechdel test, focusing on their badass careers saving an entire CITY and their friendships. Breaking out the results by show and season and plotting against broadcast year, there is some sign of an upward trend.