There are many problems in trying to classify film as either feminist, female friendly, misogynist or whatever. What I aim to do in this series is to examine some strategies and policies that feminists across the blogosphere have devised for making these decisions. The first one I’ll be looking at is what we’ll call the Bechdel Test but that has existed under several names. This originates from the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For and has been referenced by many film viewers since.
Here is a link to The Bechdel Test
The best part about this approach is that it encourages an analysis of the gender make up of films’ main characters from the beginning. This is especially useful in challenging the male-as-default characterisations. There is an issue in that the Test can only be used for more mainstream narrative films and that you need to know a decent amount of information about the film before you begin. However, I’m all for researching films before viewing so I guess the issues I have with it are elsewhere.
Firstly, feminist avant garde films generally don’t pass the test. While this is ok to a degree because it is being used to examine mainstream cinema it doesn’t widen the experience of the viewer by omitting film that is told visually rather than by dialogue.
Secondly, there are some feminist films that focus on one character and their experiences. I’m trying hard for example to remember whether Orlando had any conversations with other women. I believe it is just monologue or with men. This example also highlights the problem with gender binaries, but again this isn’t an issue central to popular cinema. How is gender understood though in this case, as the gender of the character or the actor? These aren’t always the same.
My third issue is that besides not talking about men the women can talk about anything. This lets several women hating films through the net such as What Women Want where women have conversations about lipstick. But as it is obvious that what the Test is really looking for is an intelligent conversation this perhaps isn’t a big issue.
In general I like the Bechdel test. It makes the lack of female protagonists in mainstream cinema more visible and encourages critical film viewing. However for watching diverse films, silent cinema, or art cinema for example, a different, more complex set of criteria will need to be used.
Here is a link to The Bechdel Test
The best part about this approach is that it encourages an analysis of the gender make up of films’ main characters from the beginning. This is especially useful in challenging the male-as-default characterisations. There is an issue in that the Test can only be used for more mainstream narrative films and that you need to know a decent amount of information about the film before you begin. However, I’m all for researching films before viewing so I guess the issues I have with it are elsewhere.
Firstly, feminist avant garde films generally don’t pass the test. While this is ok to a degree because it is being used to examine mainstream cinema it doesn’t widen the experience of the viewer by omitting film that is told visually rather than by dialogue.
Secondly, there are some feminist films that focus on one character and their experiences. I’m trying hard for example to remember whether Orlando had any conversations with other women. I believe it is just monologue or with men. This example also highlights the problem with gender binaries, but again this isn’t an issue central to popular cinema. How is gender understood though in this case, as the gender of the character or the actor? These aren’t always the same.
My third issue is that besides not talking about men the women can talk about anything. This lets several women hating films through the net such as What Women Want where women have conversations about lipstick. But as it is obvious that what the Test is really looking for is an intelligent conversation this perhaps isn’t a big issue.
In general I like the Bechdel test. It makes the lack of female protagonists in mainstream cinema more visible and encourages critical film viewing. However for watching diverse films, silent cinema, or art cinema for example, a different, more complex set of criteria will need to be used.
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