biointeho replied to your post: OH MY GOD BECHDEL TEST WEBSITE WHY DO I EVEN CHECK...
what the actual fuck? doesn’t that defeat the point of the Bechdel test?!
A lot of shit on that site defeats the point completely. Here is a list of nonsense that they have used to disqualified otherwise-passing movies:
A man is in the room when the conversation took place, despite having no lines
The conversation didn't last a full minute and a half (which is worth mentioning, but not a part of the test even a little bit)
"She wasn't talking with her, she was talking to her."
The conversation was about someone whose identity and gender is unknown to both the characters and the audience at the time of conversation. It is eventually revealed to be a man. (I haven't watched "Gossip Girl," but I've heard rumors that "Gossip Girl" isn't necessarily a "girl," and if they're true, I really don't feel like all conversations between women about Gossip Girl on that show should retroactively fail because it turned out to be a man)
One woman started the conversation on earth, and the other woman waited until they were both on board a spaceship to continue talking, even though there were no lines between those two points
"Subtextually about a man" which often translates to "that conversation made me think of a male character, even though they never mentioned him"
One or more woman was wearing revealing clothing when the conversation took place (not part of the test)
It is a children's movie and the conversation is between two characters, at least one of whom is named as "(character's) mom."
And my personal favorite:
Whether or not it passes depends on how much of the movie is outside a product of a character's imagination, which character, and whether one of the women is a figment of a man's imagination or a shade of an actual woman who died, none of which is ever clarified within the film's narrative. The film I'm talking about is "Inception," which is currently listed as a "dubious pass." If "Mal" is really an echo of the real Mal, then it passes. If "Mal" is a projection, but the whole story is Cobb's dream, then it passes (because in that case, all the characters are projections and the movie passes because Mal and Ariadne are equally "real").
So basically, the point is that the Bechdel Test is a really valuable tool, especially for beginners, for examining whether or not the female characters have agency of their own in the plot. Of course, that's all it is, though, a jumping-off point. People who are more experienced in media literacy and critique can usually tell whether or not the women in the film are independent agents and characters in their own right without even considering whether or not it passed the Bechdel Test.
Because honestly, the only thing the Bechdel Test actually measures is whether or not it passed the Bechdel Test. The result of whether or not a movie passes should always have a follow-up question.
It passed: Okay, is there positive portrayal of all genders portrayed? Do the women have agency? Is the film misogynist? Is it feminist?
The movie failed: Okay, why did it fail? What does it say about this movie that it doesn't have two women talking to each other about something or a man or men? Does it fail because of tokenism? Does it fail because there are only two characters in the film and at least one of them is male, meaning it would be impossible by definition for it to pass? Does it fail because it's impossible for two women to have a conversation about anything if there's only one character in the film, even if that character is a woman? Is the movie set in a jury room where the defendant is a man, and even though six of the jurors are women and they all have their own interests and motivations and are independent agents, all the dialogue in the film is about the guilt or innocence of the defendant?
I got a little over-explainy there, I think, but my point is that I don't like the fact that this website treats a useful jumping-off point for media critique as if it's a hard-and-fast rule. In reality, movies can fail the Bechdel Test and still have three-dimensional, positive, responsible portrayals of women with plenty of agency, and movies can pass it with flying colors and still completely fail to have the women be characters in their own right who exist beyond their relation to the male characters.
Anyway, point is that I really hate that website.
