What Is The Bechdel-Wallace Test?
The Bechdel-Wallace test is a way to measure the representation of women in film. In order to pass the test, the film must meet three requirements: (1) feature at least two women in it; (2) these women talk to each other; (3) these women talk to each other about something other than a man (About, n.d.). Some iterations of the Bechdel-Wallace test require that the two female characters have names (Neville, 2023).
Dykes To Watch Out For
In 1983, Alison Bechdel began writing and drawing her comic strip, Dykes to Watch Out For. This comic ran until 2008 and was featured in many gay and alternative weekly newspapers across the United States. When Bechdel began self-syndicating the comic on the internet, it, and particularly The Rule, took on a new life and the Bechdel-Wallace test was born.
Digging Deeper
While the Bechdel-Wallace test is a very useful tool, there's more to examining the representation of women in film than simply meeting the test's three basic requirements. Today, we're seeing more movies with at least two women talking to each other about something other than men... but is this enough?
As Bechdel shared, "If you think about it, they're pretty superficial criteria. It would be easy to make a movie that fulfilled them in name but kind of missed the point" (in Abdelfatah and Arablouei, 2023). Looking at the actual content of films and what they say (or don't say) about women's lives, experiences, and struggles matters. It's also important to think about how media representations of often invisible or marginalized groups, like women, women of colour, and lesbians, can become co-opted, oversimplified, or used against us.
"When I was young, I thought it was simple. The more visibility, the more rights - boom. But what I've seen over the course of my career is that representation is a two-way street. Once you see yourself represented in a movie or in a television show, you're being co-opted in a sense, you know? Even if it's a genuine - maybe especially if it's an authentic representation, you're being, like, chewed up in this capitalist cultural machine and turned into a product. I think the real question is how do we make stories that are as complicated as real people and that don't oversimplify what it means to be human, what it means to be alive?" (Bechdel in Abdelfatah and Arablouei, 2023).
Passing the Bechdel-Wallace test doesn't necessarily mean that the film has good representations of women, that it consistently has good representations of women, or that it's a feminist film. Rather, its a starting point for a larger discussion on these issues.
Race & The Bechdel-Wallace Test
Women of colour and Indigenous women have used the Bechdel-Wallace test to examine race representations in mainstream popular film (Johnson, 2009; Keene, 2014). Adapting the test to measure representations of race, the following criteria applies: the film must (1) feature at least two people of colour in it; (2) these people of colour talk to each other; (3) these people of colour talk to each other about something other than a white person (Johnson, 2009). Many mainstream films can't even meet the first of the three requirements to pass the race-based Bechdel-Wallace test (Johnson, 2009).
While also a useful tool when applied to race, the Bechdel-Wallace test is even more powerful when used to examine, from a feminist perspective, the representations of women of colour and Indigenous women in mainstream media.
Feminist Theory In Action
The Bechdel-Wallace test is an excellent example of feminist theorizing in action. Instead of a detached, hard-to-understand theory coming out of academia and attempts to apply it to the material conditions of women's lives, the Bechdel-Wallace test theory came from the everyday lived experiences of women trying to make sense of our lives and is easy-to-understand. It makes sense. It helps us understand the world better, and this, according to feminist Marilyn Frye, is what makes a good theory.
Movies That Pass The Bechdel-Wallace Test
If you are looking for films that pass the Bechdel-Wallace test, you can check them out online at the Palo Alto City Library:
Or at the Bechdel Test Movie List website.
Some Questions To Consider
- What is your favourite movie?
- Does your favorite movie pass the Bechdel-Wallace test? Do the movies you enjoy need to pass the Bechdel-Wallace test?
- Do you have any of your own test criteria for the films you watch?
- How do we tell stories through film and other media that not only pass the basic requirements of the Bechdel-Wallace test, but show the complexity of women's lives? Is that possible in today's media climate?
Comment
References
About. (n.d.). Bechdel Test Movie List. Retrieved November 30, 2024, from https://bechdeltest.com/
Abdelfatah, R. and Arablouei, R. (2023, April 5). What is the Bechdel test? A shorthand for measuring representation in movies. npr Illinois. https://www.nprillinois.org/2023-04-05/what-is-the-bechdel-test-a-shorthand-for-measuring-representation-in-movies
Johnson, A. D. (2009, September 1). The Bechdel test and race in popular fiction. The Angry Black Woman. http://theangryblackwoman.com/2009/09/01/the-bechdel-test-and-race-in-popular-fiction/
Keene, A. (2014, October 7). Is it time for a native Bechdel test?. Native Appropriations. https://nativeappropriations.com/2014/10/is-it-time-for-a-native-bechdel-test.html
Neville, L. (2023, May 30). What is the Bechdel test? Backstage. https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/what-is-the-bechdel-test-75534/
Women and Hollywood. (2016, February 17). What happened after Swedish theaters introduced a Bechdel rating for its movies?. Women and Hollywood. https://womenandhollywood.com/what-happened-after-swedish-theaters-introduced-a-bechdel-rating-for-its-movies-61b018e823f4/
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