I recently heard
about a test done on movies and other media that can reveal a gender bias. From
a comic in 1985, one of the characters says that she won’t watch a film unless
it has ‘two women who talk to each other about something besides a man.’ More
recent applications also require the women be named characters. For the purpose
of this blog, I’m focusing on movies.
A work can pass and
still contain sexist content such as the Twilight Saga. All of the movies pass
because Bella talks to other named female characters about something other than
Edward such as the Volturi, how vampires survive, a character’s backstory, etc.
Despite that, there is nothing positive going on for women in this series.
Another example is
that the female characters will talk about babies, weddings, or marriage rather
than just men. They don’t talk about the world or what makes them tick outside
of their husbands/families.
Other films may fail
because of the setting and time for the characters. Most war movies or certain historical
themes will be light on women in order to accurately portray setting. If it’s
going to be something other than an alternate history or comedy, I’d rather it
be realistic than politically correct. It just shows the world needs to pass
the Bechdel test as well.
Let’s look at some popular
movies on HBO and Netflix, Wikipedia’s list of the highest grossing movies, and
a few personal favorites. I’m limiting it to movies I’ve seen. I’ll hit up TV
shows another time.
Avengers: Fail. Black
Widow and Agent Hill (Robyn from HIMYM) are good characters but they never
speak to any other women for the whole movie. Also, most of you didn’t know
Agent Hill’s name.
Hunger Games: Passes.
Katniss speaks to Effie, Rue, and her sister. All of them are young but love is
not the concern here.
Pitch Perfect:
Passes. The biggest topic of conversation is a capella and most of the major
characters are women.
Dark Knight Rises:
Fails. Going off of memory, I recall no significant dialogue between Catwoman
and any named female characters.
Dark Shadows: Passes.
There are four women plus a daughter in the movie and they rarely, if ever,
speak about men.
Avatar: Meh. I
vaguely recall brief conversations between Neytiri and her mother and Michelle
Rodriguez and Sigourney Weaver’s characters. All are named characters but any
interaction would be so nominal that it only technically counts.
Skyfall: Meh. There
was some interaction with M and Moneypenny about work and 007. Nothing
memorable other than [SPOILER ALERT]
M being replaced by a man.
Lord of the Rings:
Fails. I genuinely cannot recall any major interaction between any of the major
female characters. This goes for the whole trilogy.
Pirates of the
Caribbean (1-3): Fails. Who else does Keira Knightly talk to besides the male
characters?
Inception: Fails.
Ellen Page and Marion Cotillard almost never interact that there’s no other
woman for Page to talk to.
Leap Year: Fails. I
love Amy Adams but the only named female characters talked about love, relationships,
and engagements. I don’t expect better from most rom-coms
What to Expect When
You’re Expecting: Passes. There are plenty of named female characters but they
mostly talk about having babies. They don’t talk about work, domestic
expectations, money, etc. Again, it’s a rom-com, they usually don’t go too
deep.
The Jane Austen Book
Club: Pass. When I thought of a movie that passed, I immediately thought of
this. The women talk about their relationships but they also talk about books
and several other things. It’s one of my favorites.
Tim Burton’s Alice in
Wonderland: Pass. While Alice mostly discusses relationships with people at the
start, the Wonderland queen have better things to discuss.
Push: Passes. The
sci-fi flick has a good ratio of named female characters who spend almost no
time talking about relationships.
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