There are plenty of reasons to love Sweden: midnight sunshine, IKEA and smörgåsbord, but the newest and by far the coolest? Some Swedish movie theaters have adapted the Bechdel test in their movie ratings. Created by cartoonist Alison Bechdel in 1985, it is a quick way to check for gender bias in movies.
In essence, the test asks: is there
a woman in the movie whose main character trait is not tied to her relationship with a male or her “femininity?” Does the movie A) have two or more women in it with names? B) Do those two named women talk to each other? C) When they talk, do they talk about things that are not about a man or men? Seems simple enough, but you may be surprised by the sheer number and range of movies that don’t pass this test — “Slumdog Millionaire,” “Shrek” and “Napoleon Dynamite,” just to name a few. It is an issue across all genres of film and a trend particularly troubling for films for children.
In essence, the test asks: is there
a woman in the movie whose main character trait is not tied to her relationship with a male or her “femininity?” Does the movie A) have two or more women in it with names? B) Do those two named women talk to each other? C) When they talk, do they talk about things that are not about a man or men? Seems simple enough, but you may be surprised by the sheer number and range of movies that don’t pass this test — “Slumdog Millionaire,” “Shrek” and “Napoleon Dynamite,” just to name a few. It is an issue across all genres of film and a trend particularly troubling for films for children.
“It’s not even a sign of whether it’s a feminist movie or whether it’s a good movie, just that there is female presence in it,” said Anita Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency, a video webseries that monitors the portrayal of women in pop culture. The Bechdel Test doesn’t make biased movies better, but it does make consumers smarter — and that is a step in the right direction.
Bias exists in many forms, chiefly institutional and creative, that actively contribute to the gender disparities in film. Of the top 10 grossing films in 2012, only “Brave,” “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2,” “Skyfall,” and “The Hunger Games” passed the Bechdel test, although “Twilight” and “Skyfall” only passed on technicalities.
Bias exists in many forms, chiefly institutional and creative, that actively contribute to the gender disparities in film. Of the top 10 grossing films in 2012, only “Brave,” “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2,” “Skyfall,” and “The Hunger Games” passed the Bechdel test, although “Twilight” and “Skyfall” only passed on technicalities.
Furthermore, of those top 10 movies only “Brave,” “Twilight,” “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” and “The Hunger Games” had a woman involved in either direction of the movie or writing of the script. On the production and distribution side of things, of the companies that released those movies only Warner Brothers, Disney, Pixar, Sony and Paramount have women in executive-level positions. There is a huge economic incentive to making movies more diverse. The more diversity in gender, ethnicity and culture that touches a film in its creation, the better the movie and the wider its appeal. Therefore, the higher its potential for revenue than a less diverse film. Those top 10 movies were not necessarily the best movies of 2012 — they simply made the most money. If blockbusters are your goal, then why not broaden your audience and make these movies the most marketable to the largest group of people?
The scary part about movies being even remotely sexist — it is an institutional problem that creates and feeds the cultural problem. As much as a film can act as a cultural mirror, reflecting our own ideals and beliefs, it also has the ability to create and perpetuate a social issue. If we as a society treat our fictional females as novelties whose identities are predicated on their gender, it places a low societal, cultural and economic value on real-life women.
Not every female character in a movie has to be a arrow-toting trope-defying Katniss Everdeen type (although I would probably shell out a lot of cash to see those movies). They just have to have a hint of nuance. If we’re really shooting high, there has
to be more than one so we can’t simply use “the girl” as a character identifier. If all else fails, move to Sweden. I hear they have really forward-thinking movie theaters.
[email protected]
to be more than one so we can’t simply use “the girl” as a character identifier. If all else fails, move to Sweden. I hear they have really forward-thinking movie theaters.
[email protected]