Hollywood films have a critical lack of powerful female characters. The Bechdel test emerged as a means of highlighting this issue. In this paper, I will argue that the Bechdel test is not a truly effective measure of meaningful female presence in Hollywood, and further criteria should be added. To demonstrate this, I will be applying the test to three films and explaining the test’s limitations in each instance. The films that will be analyzed are as follows: “Captain America: Civil War”; “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”; and “Deadpool.”
The Bechdel Test is used to measure meaningful female presence in Hollywood films (Sarkeesian, “The Oscars”). The test has three criteria: firstly, a film must have at least two named female characters; secondly, …show more content…
I argue that it should be taken into consideration that a woman who has no love interest, has a strong personality, and is a capable fighter, is the main character in a huge Hollywood film. The film dedicates time to her development from a cynic to a hero able to unify and lead Rebellion forces. This character, who is heroic, unsexualized, and active, challenges stereotypes of women as passive sexual objects (Mulvey 837). She leads the Rebellion and the story. Despite its poor performance in the Bechdel test, this film’s representations of women are …show more content…
The test is not a measure of whether a film is empowering to women. A film such as “Captain America: Civil War” could pass the test with stereotypical female interaction, or only two seconds of incidental dialogue. Meanwhile, a film like “Rogue One” barely passes the test, but has empowering representations of women. To improve the test, I would ask if the female characters presented play into any stereotypes, and add a standard of 60 seconds of dialogue. Furthermore, the original Bechdel test fails to consider the minimal presence of people of colour, disabled people, or LGBT-identified people. I would add criteria to measure for these groups’ presence, similar to John’s race test adaptation. Additionally, the test considers only the content of the films, not the process of their production. White men hold positions of power in Hollywood and control the stories produced. Introducing diversity behind the scenes would help pave the way towards creating empowering representations on the screen. I would add criteria to measure the presence of women, people of colour, disabled people, and LGBTQA+ people behind the scenes in prominent roles such as in direction, screenwriting or
The Bechdel Test is used to measure meaningful female presence in Hollywood films (Sarkeesian, “The Oscars”). The test has three criteria: firstly, a film must have at least two named female characters; secondly, …show more content…
I argue that it should be taken into consideration that a woman who has no love interest, has a strong personality, and is a capable fighter, is the main character in a huge Hollywood film. The film dedicates time to her development from a cynic to a hero able to unify and lead Rebellion forces. This character, who is heroic, unsexualized, and active, challenges stereotypes of women as passive sexual objects (Mulvey 837). She leads the Rebellion and the story. Despite its poor performance in the Bechdel test, this film’s representations of women are …show more content…
The test is not a measure of whether a film is empowering to women. A film such as “Captain America: Civil War” could pass the test with stereotypical female interaction, or only two seconds of incidental dialogue. Meanwhile, a film like “Rogue One” barely passes the test, but has empowering representations of women. To improve the test, I would ask if the female characters presented play into any stereotypes, and add a standard of 60 seconds of dialogue. Furthermore, the original Bechdel test fails to consider the minimal presence of people of colour, disabled people, or LGBT-identified people. I would add criteria to measure for these groups’ presence, similar to John’s race test adaptation. Additionally, the test considers only the content of the films, not the process of their production. White men hold positions of power in Hollywood and control the stories produced. Introducing diversity behind the scenes would help pave the way towards creating empowering representations on the screen. I would add criteria to measure the presence of women, people of colour, disabled people, and LGBTQA+ people behind the scenes in prominent roles such as in direction, screenwriting or