{"id":2349,"date":"2019-03-25T10:31:45","date_gmt":"2019-03-25T14:31:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/?p=2349"},"modified":"2019-03-25T10:31:45","modified_gmt":"2019-03-25T14:31:45","slug":"the-bechdel-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/2019\/03\/25\/the-bechdel-what\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bechdel What?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/bender-lib.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/03\/BechdelBoard-1024x675.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2350\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>What\u2019s the theme of this week\u2019s whiteboard? Why, the\nBechdel Test, of course!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Bechdel Test originated in a 1985 strip of <em>Dykes to Watch Out For<\/em>, a comic by\nrenowned cartoonist (and MacArthur Genius Grant recipient) Alison Bechdel. &nbsp;In order for a movie to pass her test, it\nmust:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Feature two or more named female characters<\/li><li>Who talk to each other<\/li><li>About something other than a man<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>This test is admittedly a low bar\u2014a movie can pass with\njust one line of dialogue between two women. However, it\u2019s frustrating that so\nmany movies made today fail to pass, more than twenty years after the test\u2019s\ninception. It\u2019s also an incomplete measurement. <em>Star Wars:<\/em> <em>A New Hope<\/em>\nreally, really fails the Bechdel Test, but it introduced the world to Princess\nLeia, who takes over her own rescue operation after Luke, Han, and Chewie start\nfloundering. Four decades later, most recent addition to the main Star Wars\nfilms, <em>Star Wars: The Last Jedi<\/em>\nbarely passes the Bechdel test, but characters like Rey, Rose, Leia, and Admiral\nHoldo are essential to the plot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/bender-lib.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/03\/leiagif.gif\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2351\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>So, what\u2019s a girl to do? Is there any good, uniform way\nto tell if a movie is sexist or not? Well, when I\u2019m evaluating a movie, I like\nto add Kelly Sue DeConnick\u2019s \u201cSexy Lamp Test,\u201d in with the Bechdel for a more\ncomplete picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But what\u2019s the Sexy Lamp Test? If you can replace a\nfemale character with a sexy lamp, and the main plot of the movie is\nunimpacted, then it fails the Sexy Lamp Test. Essentially, it\u2019s a measure of\nhow relevant a woman is to a story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unfortunately, there was no good way to highlight the\nBechdel <em>and <\/em>Sexy Lamp tests on one\nsmall whiteboard. Still, we were dissatisfied with giving the movies we\nhighlight a simple pass\/fail grade. So we came up with the report card. We\nawarded movies that passed the Bechdel Test with flying colors (like <em>Persepolis<\/em>, <em>Legally Blonde<\/em>, <em>Hidden Figures<\/em>,\nand <em>Thelma and Louise<\/em>) an A+. Movies\nthat passed by the skin of their teeth (like <em>Rogue One<\/em>) we gave Cs. Other movies that did a better job, but didn\u2019t\nfeature multiple Bechdel Conversations, we awarded Bs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And if they failed the Bechdel Test? Then they straight up failed. No grey areas there. Because really. Women make up 50% of the world\u2019s population. We talk about waaay more than mediocre men. We deserve to see ourselves in the movies we watch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/bender-lib.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/03\/cluelessgif.gif\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2352\" \/><\/figure>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What\u2019s the theme of this week\u2019s whiteboard? Why, the Bechdel Test, of course! The Bechdel Test originated in a 1985 strip of Dykes to Watch Out For, a comic by renowned cartoonist (and MacArthur Genius Grant recipient) Alison Bechdel. &nbsp;In order for a movie to pass her test, it must: Feature two or more named [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,19,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home-use","category-recommendations","category-whiteboard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2349\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/mediaservices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}