Bechdel Test Thread

[TrilllianAstra]

I thought having a thread for "I just watched this and it passed/failed and I thought..." would be good to encourage me to think of the Bechdel test when watching TV/films or reading books. I wonbe watching/reading anything on purpose for the thread, just thought I would apply it to whatever I happened to be watching or reading.

The test doesn't necessarily say that a film is feminist/antifeminist, but it is interesting.

Rules reminder:
Are there at least two women (some versions say "two women with names")
Who have a conversation
About something other than a man?

Feel free to join in :)

Trillian: if you could find an episode of Top Gear which passed I would quite happily shag James May.
Though I think, actually, the Bechdel Test only applies to works of fiction.

Surely no one would happily shag James May?

Well if it was him, Richard Hammond or Clarkson and you have to do one of them or be shot.... which one would it be?

GOTTIT!

In the Top Gear episode when they tested small practical Japanese cars they got their mums in to test them because they were the target market. 3 women, named (admittedly the names given were Mrs Hammond, Mrs Clarkson and Mrs May, but those are their names), talking about cars.

I have found an episode of Top Gear that passes the Bechdel Test!
Now do I get to shag James May?

I think it's SGB who has gets to shag James May, but perhaps she'll send you a photo?

Watching the final season of 24 last night, it struck me that not only are there a few female characters, but they would never dream of talking to each other about men. It's all data-handling, and drawing concealed weapons to advance the incoherent stream of consciousness plotline.

I'd rather shag James May than Clarkson.

I'd rather do Hammond (but not be seen in public with the shortie) than the other two.

Watched two episodes of V last night and both passed. The main alien is a woman, so that helps.

Only one proper-character human female, unfortunately, but the female aliens are the females of their kind, not just look-like-women-actually-alien.

Random episode of that Star Wars cartoon thing, Clone Wars, passed.

Although I'm still annoyed that the male warrior characters wear robes and full body armour while the females ones wear boob tubes and tiny tank tops. Why, huh, why?

Princess Leia mostly wore quite practical clothes for running around and shooting stuff - apart from when she was a bikini-clad slave for a giant slug of course.

this is a superb test, I like it.

I just finished watching the Shadow Line. there were four female characters - joseph's wife, glickman's girlfriend, gabriel's wife and gabriel's mistress. (it's not doing very well is it?)

the only dialogue that any of them have with eachother (so far as I can recall) is when gabriel's mistress confronted gabriel's wife to talk about .... gabriel.

It's a FAIL isn't it?

But I will admit that I enjoyed the show a lot, and so did Mrs Stubborn. But this test I will remember from now on.

I've watched a few episodes of The Event, and the only female-only conversations have been one woman holding a gun to the other's head and the other saying "my boyfriend will rescue me". Lame. There are some interesting female characters (who could easily have been male, their being female is not a plot point) but it's still failing as they are not talking to each other.

Battlestar Galactica (the new one - don't think the old one would pass do you?).

Agree with the Phil Rickman books - lots of female characters who are generally fairly reticent about talking "relationships".

Buffy obviously.

The Rock - fail! (unsurprisingly)

I've watched a couple of films recently that passed with flying colours - Mamma Mia was one, as was the new St Trinian's film, which has about three male characters in the whole thing. I'm not sure I'd class it as a feminist film, exactly, but I was quite heartened by all the female anarchy and the way the men are all idiots.

The Bechdel test has actually made me rethink several films which I kind of dismissed as vacuous fun before - things like Legally Blonde and Miss Congeniality. They actually look pretty damn feminist compared to some of the crappy romcoms that have come out more recently.

Black swan passes.

I don't think having few/no male characters makes a film feminist. Neither does portraying men as idiots. As far as I am aware feminism isn't about a world without men, or about thinking that men are stupider than women.

It's perfectly possible to pass the test and still be anti-feminist, or to fail the test and not be anti-feminist (although I imagine hard to fail the test and be pro-feminist).

Whip it- pass.
Six degrees of separation- spoiler I think it fails because the only time I can remember two named female characters talking to each other is when one tells the other she is getting married. But maybe that is a pass because she, the daughter, is only getting married to annoy her parents and the groom is never named or mentioned. Does 'getting married' count as talking about a man? Views?

Love & Other Drugs - epic fail. And not just for not passing the test.

Potiche passes with flying colours

3 good female roles, a few women extras, all talking politics, factories, strikes etc. as well as relationships, family, love. Suzanne (Catherine Deneuve) really is the centre of the film, even such a big (in all ways) actor as Gerard Depardieu is secondary in this.

And it's hilarious. I recommend it!

Interesting question - if you are talking about a wedding as an event then that's not talking about a man, but if it's about getting married to the man then that is a conversation about a man. If you were discussing marriage in a philosophical way or in a "does marriage make people happier?" way then that would be talking about the institution of marriage. So, er, maybe.

No, Trillian, of course having few men in a film or making the men idiots doesn't make a film feminist. I was just saying that's why I enjoyed it