The Bechdel Test
Think of the last movie you saw. Now ask yourself three questions:
Chances are, the answer to at least one of these questions will be no. Way back in 1985, cartoonist Allison Bechdel outlined the three preceding simple rules for assessing gender bias (Ulaby, 2008). The “Bechdel Test” (or “Bechdel Rule”), originally a joke in a panel of Bechdel’s comic “Dykes to Watch Out For,” developed a life of its own, it seems, when people began to realize just how few films were able to meet these three simple criteria. In the thirty years since it was introduced, the Bechdel test has become a popular—
The criteria outlined set a pretty low bar for the inclusion of women in films, and yet a shocking number of popular and critically acclaimed films still fail to clear it. Of the fifty highest-
The Bechdel test was never intended to assess the quality of a film or to critique the way films portray women. Many great movies featuring strong female leads (like 2013’s Gravity or 1998’s Run Lola Run) fail the test, while some with decidedly unfeminist messages manage to pass (many a movie has been saved on the basis of a conversation about shoes or hair). And, of course, some stories are simply not about women (the plot, setting, and time frame of films like Twelve Angry Men or Saving Private Ryan would not be expected to support a large female cast). But the test does manage to shine a light on the fact that most Hollywood films are produced primarily for and often centered on men and concerned with male stories.