About a couple of weeks ago, we learned about a famous test known as the Bechdel Test which tests the gender bias of movies. Basically, the test asks for a movie where two female characters have a conversation about something other than an man. At first I didn't think a lot of my favorite movies were that gender biased. But as I applied the Bechdel Test to some of my favorite movies, I began to see almost all of them fail at the Bechdel Test. There was really only one movie that passed the test that is recently came out; Bridesmaids.
After applying the test to many movies, both modern and old, I began to think that almost all of Hollywood is biased and is a little offensive to women (in that specific area). However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this test is not perfect and just because a movie fails it doesn't mean that it is offensive. Take the movie Gravity; it fails the Bechdel Test, but only because there is literally three characters in the film. It is solely made up of Sandra Bullock, George Clooney, and some other guy who wasn't around long enough for me to learn his name. Because that movie fails the test, does that make it offensive to women and gender biased? Is it fair to test this movie where it only focuses on one character who is lost in space and has no contact with the world below? I'm not saying that the test doesn't point out some flaws in movies. However, movies like Gravity and 127 Hours are given an automatic fail because there isn't two female characters in it. With something like 127 Hours, the whole story was focused on one man trying to get free from a chasm. Is it fair that it should be failed on this test when it only focused on a guy trying to get free?
What I'm really trying to say is the test itself is somewhat flawed. Yes, it does point out some gender bias in movies, but it's not okay to say that this movie fails only because it focused on a single person the whole film. Even if a film does fail this test, it doesn't make it a bad movie. One of my favorite movies (and one of the greatest films of all time) The Godfather fails this test, yet it still changed the way I thought and provided amazing acting and drama. Although it does point out some flaws, I personally don't agree with the Bechdel Test and even if a movie fails it, I doubt that it will affect me greatly.
Great thoughts Austin! I would like to add that my current favorite movie, The Heat, passes the Bechdel Test and it came out this summer. I don't think it would pass the male Bechdel test to be honest. I agree a lot with what you are saying, however, I don't think the test's goal is to point out good or bad movies or movies that are gender biased. I think it has a higher goal to highlight in general how flawed the portrayal of life is in movies. The majority of movies fail this test and even though we still find a lot of these movies entertaining, we are missing the point that women are not accurately represented in the movie-making community as a whole. This causes a subconscious stereotype within us where we expect men to be the most elite and the most important.
ReplyDeleteI think that the Bechdel test is less something that we should judge every movie with and more something that we should use to judge our culture and media as a whole. Every movie is different, and, just like in the case of Gravity, the Bechdel test does not always work. It does show a large issue with the big picture of all of the media we consume. It's interesting and a bit terrifying.
ReplyDelete