Have you ever gone to a movie and left the theater feeling disappointed at the lack of complex, interesting female characters in the film you just paid $12 to see? That happened to feminist cartoonist Alison Bechdel so often that she came up with “the Rule,” a test to decide if a film is worth seeing. The test consists of a three-part question: (1) Does the film have at least two women in it, who (2) talk to each other, about (3) something besides a man. You’d be surprised how many films don’t pass this simple test!
With the recent announcement of the Academy Award nominees, we decided to see how the best picture contenders measure up by checking their rankings on http://bechdeltest.com.
Black Swan: passes three of three tests
Inception: passes three of three tests (with some dispute in the comments)
The Kids Are All Right: passes three of three tests
The King’s Speech: passes three of three tests
127 Hours: passes three of three tests (with some dispute in the comments)
Toy Story 3: passes three of three tests (with some dispute in the comments)
True Grit: passes three of three tests (because of one line in the entire film)
The Social Network: passes one of three tests (an issue we have discussed before)
Winter’s Bone: passes three of three tests
Strangely, no one has put the other best picture nominee The Fighter to the Bechdel test. We have not seen the film, did you? Let us know about it in the comments.
Of these nominees, only two films were directed by women (The Kids Are All Right and Winter’s Bone), but we will not have another Kathryn Bigelow this year — all of the best director nominees are men.
As a group, this year’s nominees pass the Bechdel test fairly well. One movie that didn’t get nominated but was on several short lists for best picture takes on an issue that is close to home for AAUW. Made in Dagenham is a film about female sewing machinists’ strike for equal pay in the United Kingdom. The movie passes the Bechdel test and is in a limited number of theaters in the United States.
What are your criteria for a worthy film?
This post was written by AAUW Leadership Programs Fellow Jessica Kelly and AAUW Communications Fellow Elizabeth Owens.
The Fighter passes two of the three tests.
I loved made in Dagenham. It was one of my favorite films this year.
There were two other films that were inspirational for women and girls. Alice in Wonderland and Secretariat were excellent entertainment with wonderful female leads.