What Is The Bechdel Test?

The Bechdel Test, or The Bechdel-Wallace Test, sometimes also called the Mo Movie Measure or Bechdel Rule may be a simple test that names the subsequent three criteria:

1. It's to possess a minimum of two women in it, who

2. Who asks one another, about

3. Something besides a person.

The test was popularized by Alison Bechdel's comic during a 1985 strip called Dykes to Observe Out For. It introduced the thought as a winking criticism of male-dominated movies.

The test may be a blunt, basic measure of gender equality during a given film/show/book/etc. It revels in its absurd simplicity. While passing the Bechdel Test is not any indication of a film’s feminist leanings, the sheer number of releases that don’t meet its basic requirements is staggering. A 2018 BBC study found that slightly below half the films named Best Picture at the Oscars have passed. With the addition of the three most up-to-date winners—The Shape of Water, Green Book, and Parasite—that number involves exactly half.

Progress is not linear: in 2020, three Best Picture nominees (The Irishman, 1917, Ford v Ferrari) failed the test, three tried to make their case (Marriage Story, Joker, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), and only three (Little Women, Jojo Rabbit, Parasite) passed conclusively.
Other alternatives to the Bechdel Test have developed more naturally. There’s the Mako Mori Test, coined on Tumblr and inspired by the character of an equivalent name in Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim (2013). It asks that films have a minimum of one female character who has her narrative arc and doesn't exist only to support a man’s story.

The Furiosa Test, named after Charlize Theron’s character in Mad Max: Fury Road and applicable to films that anger men’s rights activists therefore the Sexy Lamp Test - If you'll remove a female character from your plot and replace her with a horny lamp and your story still works, you’re a hack.

Although these proved to be powerful talking points, none have taken hold just like the Bechdel Test. This is often partly because no other test for gender equality has ever come closer to being met by most films, and also because its demands are among the smallest amount subjective. the very fact remains that until most releases pass the minimal requirements it sets, it’s difficult to imagine the industry demanding more intersectionality behind the camera or female-led crews. Getting two female characters to possess one meaningful conversation must surely be the primary step toward progress.

2020, however, was a promising year for Bechdel Test-passing hits. The TV shows that have captivated audiences in lockdown include Unorthodox, Normal People, Killing Eve, and That I May Destroy You. Meanwhile, the cinematic offerings that are made available to observe reception range from Autumn de Wilde’s Austen adaptation of Emma and Philippa Lowthorpe’s Miss World-themed romp Misbehaviour, to Eliza Hitman’s Never Rarely Sometimes Always and Kitty Green’s The Assistant, all featured complicated female leads.

By: Deeksha Goyal