tv shows that pass the bechdel test
The actor describes Harry Styles as "a very kind guy.". It gets uncomfortable at times, but their stellar performances keep us glued. Toy Story is such a beloved film to so many, but it unfortunately doesn't pass the test. Rick coaches him to tell a story that passes the Bechdel Test, providing a succinct explanation: "Two women, they both have to have names, and talk to each other about something other than a. About something besides a man Movie list 2023 (5 movies) Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Infinity Pool Missing Pathaan Reflect 2022 (153 movies) The 355 A Fada do Lar A Man Called Otto The Adam Project All the old knives When they do interact its usually to talk about their place in society with regards to the men and their plans. It shows what women can do when theyre on the same side with the same goal. 6. There must be two female characters in the scene. The only problem is that the conversation is about Jake, who, you probably noticed, is a man. But seriously, I cant remember two female characters even talking to each other. How it passes: Although we dont hear The Brides real name until about halfway through the second movie, her codename is enough to set her apart as a named character. The female characters must talk to each other. Next on the list is the 2010 biographical drama movie The Social Network which also doesn't pass the Bechdel test. The Bechdel Test -- created by Alison Bechdel in her 1985 comic, "Dykes to Watch Out For" -- is a well-known measurement of gender bias in movies. The single episode with the most Nurse/Nurse interaction, they were basically spending the episode bitching about Maj. Hoolihan. Scared her people will turn on her, she runs away and loses emotional control plunging the Kingdom into an eternal winter. If you were ever looking for a film that could pass the Bechdel Test, this would be it. supports the work of the Press Council of Ireland and the Office of the Press A movie is typically no more than 2-3 hours long, while the complete run of a successful TV series could add up to over 100 hours. Seriously, George, why is the whole galaxy a sausage fest? Its a good thing that she has good friends to help her do it. Shes brilliant and weird and is really really good at choosing great roles. Besides Friends, Will and Grace, and Married With Children, the other shows have a lopsided number of male characters, so are unlikely to be left without a male-male storyline. The test is named for Alison Bechdel, creator of the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For, who made it known to the world with this strip. And, apparently, successfully robbing banks is one of the things they can accomplish together. When she meets Jules, a fellow female footballer, she cant help but join the local womens football team, but this causes major problems for her home life and Jess finds herself torn between what she wants and her familys expectations. That means having at least two, named, female characters in the movie, who talk to each other about something other than men. Seinfeld has only one female character in its main cast, so was bound to do badly in this test; however, it does pass step 1 in almost 90% of episodes. She quips that the last film she was able to go see was Alien in 1979. So, love them or hate them, you can probably relate to at least one of them. The Bechdel test, Also known as the Bechdel-Wallace test, is a test used for works of fiction (usually movies), named after the American cartoonist Alison Bechdel. The 25 best movies that pass the Bechdel Test with flying colors By Lauren O'Callaghan, Louise Blain, Zoe Delahunty-Light, Rachel Weber, Sam Loveridge last updated 6 May 2022 The best movies. The singer reveals how grueling life was on the road. This show might possibly be the highlight of 2017. Despite all the bitchy girl-on-girl crime that goes on though, at its heart this film is about female friendships and how complicated they can be. But alas, many Marvel movies do not actually pass the Bechdel Test. As with previous Ghostbusters movies, the busters are tracking down some ghosts who are wreaking havoc in New York. TV shows tend to run far longer than movies and thus, most of them end up passing the Bechdel Test. Was it perfect? Its authentic to life, and theyre all trying to make their way in New York. With Kristen Wiig and Rose Byrne going head-to-head in this hilarious bridesmaid-off, expect a lot of laughs and plenty of super awkward moments. Now, thats not to say that theyre all friends or even that their relationships are all healthy. Eat Sleep Die (2012) Toy Story 1 & 2. ** Okay the first pilot actually has two women speak to each other. Imagine how tedious it would be if half of all of the films you watched never had any men who were important enough to be named in them? To search the database, enter a search term below. We are now operating in a virtual space, but we can still honor and name the physical spaces we all inhabit. Some deviations from reality were for humor; some were for drama. First, the film must have at least two female characters. Starring Jeon YeoBeen (as Hong JiHyo) and Afterschool's NaNa (as Huh BoRa), "Glitch" is a dazzling celebration of female friendships and WLW relationships, and the theme is brought out with the utmost grace and delicate nuance. While Enid occupies herself with finding him a girlfriend, she and Becky grow further apart. Miramax Films. None of the female characters in the film actually have a conversation. The test is named after and . 3. for more than one minute of screen time. Especially the last season, with its female villain. Why? Thankfully, by Toy Story 3 Pixar had included a conversation between female . There had never been a movie with 100% Black ownership to make over $100 million, so that this also passed the Bechdel test is massive. It covers domestic violence, marriage hardships, and the misconception of perfection. Heres how it works. That doesnt mean its not funny, though! note Additionally. Yes, please. although I'm pretty sure Megillat Esther does not pass the Bechdel Test), the . Despite being a children's animation company, only 25% of the characters in it are female, only 4 out of 14 Pixar films pass the Bechdel test, and Brave is the only movie to have a female protagonist. This is straightforward, as the transcripts contain scene indicators, usually. Pen15 might give you flashbacks to being a preteen. To pass, the work simply has . Having a lot of lines between different gender characters makes it harder to pass the BT; from this perspective, it is better to concentrate the male characters in one storyline/scene, and the female characters in another. Seriously, in the entire 10-hour trilogy, no two female characters ever actually speak to each other. In 10 hours, not one interaction? The 25 best movies that pass the Bechdel Test with flying colors By Lauren O'Callaghan, Louise Blain, Zoe Delahunty-Light, Rachel Weber, Sam Loveridge last updated May 06, 2022 The best movies. TV Show Recaps; TV Reviews; TV Lists; TV News & Trailers; TV Features; The L Word; The L Word: Generation Q; . Alison Brie's Ruth . Some Western animated shows would fail a reverse. services and By continuing to browse, you agree to the use of cookies. The Bechdel Test is a test for whether a movie contains: Two named female characters, who talk to each other, about something besides a man. Take Game of Thrones for example. It also crushed the Golden Globes in 2017. The women definitely rule the show and its no surprise that women are also behind the scenes as well here. Euphoria doesnt shy away from topics that would never have been included in a teen show ten years ago. #ForeverAlone. The show is set in the world of 80s womens wrestling and follows an out-of-work actress who decides to achieve fame by wrestling. During the comic relief French Lesson scene (Act 3, Scene 4) Alice teaches Katherine how to speak French and there is no mention of men whatsoever. It originated in a comic strip by Bechdel in 1985. At the time, hardly any films could pass it, and many forms of media still struggle to pass it today. Frasier performs similarly badly; although it had two female characters in the main cast, Roz and Daphne interacted relatively rarely (this pairs conversations passed the BT in only 14% of episodes). There are also a handful of episodes that do not pass either test (grey). The model also addressed men profiting off her body. TH3 RUNDOWN. This site uses cookies. Some of the most popular films of all time fail The Bechdel Test, and often for reasons you may have never considered. But even then, she doesnt really speak. I think it's a show that has great female characters. The Marvelous Mrs. MaiselYou must have been living under a rock if you havent heard of this one. Books? So viewers would expect it to pass the Bechdel test with flying colors - and it does. Mary Berry Cooks / Headline Publishing Group In one installment of her comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For, one character informs the other that she will only go to see films in theaters that have adequate female representation. These 11 iconic films, including "To All the Boys I've Loved Before" and "Mean Girls," pass with flying colors. Refine See titles to watch instantly, titles you haven't rated, etc 79 titles 1. 5. Here's 10 from the past 25 year that may surprise you. Grace and FrankieHow often do we get to see older women rise up against adversity with a whole lot of laughter and a whole lot of love? Get the best gaming deals, reviews, product advice, competitions, unmissable gaming news and more! Where this show shines with regard to the Bechdel test is her relationship with her first captain Philippa Georgiou, and then further on with Captain Tilly. The actresses, who play characters of the same first names, started the show as a web series that was later picked up by Comedy Central. Kristine Kochanski was a major character in seasons 7 and 8, but Holly had changed back to a male appearance by that point so I dont think Kochanski ever spoke to the female-looking version of Holly. Content copyright Journal Media Ltd. 2023 Registered in Dublin, registration number: It doesn't cover the case when the lead character is female. On the list of TV shows I regularly watch, the only one I can point to that definitively fails is HBOs Looking. But if females are in the story, theres no reason cant they be involved in at least one conversation with each other. The movie also includes Jess sister Pinky and a whole host of other named women on the football team, and besides that, the basic message of the movie is that women can do anything even become professional footballers. There are a couple guys on the prison staff, but they tend to talk about the prisoners or their boss Fig, who is a woman. Since an episode passing the test is usually achieved by one pair of speakers only, the results are sensitive to plot arcs in each season that affect who is present in the scenes and who the female regulars spend more time with, as indicated in the figure for the more recognisable cases. Heres an excerpt on research conducted on film and gender in 2021: After reaching historic highs in 2020, the percentages of women directing top grossing films declined in 2021. Are there any TV shows that fail the Bechdel Test. Most any military-based show. There is no clear correlation between the budget or revenue of a movie and its Bechdel score. Youll fall in love with these badass Black women who justget it. Atomic BlondeYes, please give us more Charlize Theron! Im not completely certain, but possibly the original Star Trek? Each of the 12 districts must send one boy and one girl into the fight, and our heroine, Katniss Everdeen, actually volunteers to be the female tribute for Sector 12, in place of her younger sister. What Insecure does better than most shows is showcasing real vulnerability and raw honesty, and therein lies its beauty. The comic strip that popularized the test was titled "The Rule," and it says that to pass the test the movie must have three things. Bilko, and those already mentioned, have a good chance of failing. The Bechdel Test is a simple test to see if a work of fiction passes the feminist [] Cinderella. Seinfeld, Frasier, and The Office have more male than female main characters, so inevitably there are many more male-male than female-female conversations. The movie: When Princesses Elsa and Annas parents die, Elsa must become Queen, but during her coronation party everyone finds out that shes been secretly hiding powers (which she can use to freeze anything) all this time. Leia and Rey have more agency than weve seen women have in previous movies, and one of our favorite scenes is when Laura Derns character (Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo) and other female soldiers were discussing their next military move. While reading a critical review of a popular show which noted that it didn't pass the Bechdel Test, it occurred to me, a long time fan of Hannibal Lauren OCallaghan. For more information on cookies please refer to our cookies Votes: 13,610 | Gross: $1.60M. Women make up more than half of the population, but it seems that theres still a problem with representation in films and on television. Married With Children went in the other direction. ABOUT. Her pregnancy is discussed with the surprisingly sympathetic assassin Karen Kim, plus her last talk with O-Ren Ishii in the snow in particular is touching as they gradually admit their respect for each other. Director and Producer James Cameron first wrote the script in 1994 and it took a whole 15 years before the film was made and released. How it passes: Brilliantly, theres not a romantic relationship in sight in Ghostbusters. Wrong. Shes got a bit of a grudge. 5. Of course, people watch movies for the simple pleasure that the story brings. Its not always pretty, but its a true representation of female relationships. Married With Children (Peggy-Marcy and Peggy-Kelly) and Scrubs (mostly Elliot-Carla) fall down between steps 2 and 3, meaning they often had female characters talk to one another, but in many cases this was only about a male character. Stay tuned by signing up for our newsletter! The trilogy is over 10 hours long but Arwen (Liv Tyler), Eowyn (Miranda Otto) and Galadriel (Cate Blanchett), all strong female characters, do not meet even once. Her best friend and coworkers are there for her, even at her lowest. The women of this show are complex and the show does a wonderful job of passing the Bechdel test, focusing on their friendships, their careers, their kids. You can see most of the code used for this and the previous post here. Plus, its not as though failing the Bechdel Test means a movie is automatically terrible or sexist. Im trying to remember any women on McHales Navy. *WaitShore Leave has two women on the planet at the same time. 95 percent of the characters are female, and they communicate with each other constantly throughout the series about non-male-centric topics. men. One difference between what we found in our broader sample of 1,794 films released between 1970 and 2013 and the analysis at BechdelTest.com of about 5,000 films is that BechdelTest.com shows 56. Have you ever had someone comfort you after a break up by saying "There's plenty more fish in the sea?". Other than that every conversation I remember was about Hank or Walter. The Bechdel Test asks three key questions about a movie's female characters. Big Littles Lies also brings drastically different women together who have one thing in common: Their kids are in the same class. Kate McKinnon was everything. This test is otherwise known as the Bechdel/Wallace test or the Bechdel Rule or Mo Movie Measure and is marked as a measure of gender depiction in the films. She is complicated and shes funnier than most (all?) Pixar. Theyre the kind of friends you can share all your embarrassing moments with because theyve seen (and done) it all. PH: (01) 6489130, Lo-Call 1890 208 080 or email: info@presscouncil.ie. 1. Most of them fail, even ones full of female characters. So if you want to watch a TV show that passes the Bechdel test and shows the full picture of what it means to be a woman, try turning on one of these TV shows about female friendship below. Summit Entertainment EEEP! Why are youhere? It is important to note that many fans refer to the queen as Queen Grimhilde, so she may in fact have a name. The film follows three different possible outcomes for her actions and explores her relationships and interactions with the people and the world aroundher. While theres been some improvement, much work is left to do. 91 Metascore. The Bechdel test is one of the most common ways that a movie or TV show's female representation can be judged. Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale, adapted from Margaret Atwood's critically acclaimed novel of the same name, does justice to the book which cannot be said about most TV/film adaptations out there. Theres glitter, spandex, and a lot of fighting. I have compiled my ten movies and tv shows that have crushed the Bechdel test. SuperJail, unless JailBot is female. The dramedy follows Issa, her best friend Molly, and their other girlfriends as they navigate life in Los Angeles. HelloGiggles.com is part of the Dotdash Meredith Beauty & Style Group. There were a few named female characters, but they were all minor enough that its plausible that they never talked to each other. How it passes: Its easy to see how Bridesmaids (opens in new tab) passes the Bechdel Test - all the main characters are women and they talk about almost everything but men - but on the surface, it doesnt seem that female positive. Definition Of Bechdel Test. Lauren OCallaghan. The movie: Following the careers of the human computers Katherine Goble, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughn, Hidden Figures explores the rampant racism (and sexism) the three figureheads endured during their time working at NASA during the space race. It's a quiz developed in 1985 by graphic novelist Alison Bechdel and her friend Liz Wallace that reveals just how sexist (or not) any given work of fiction might be. So, what is the Bechdel Test? The Office increased its pass rate during its run, as did Seinfeld and Frasier, with the exception of their final seasons. and TV shows. The Bechdel Test explained like you're five It is as simple as that, and you will do this for every scene in the script. Yes, theres boy drama and girl drama (Kat identifies as bisexual), but the show isnt about romantic relationshipsits about friendships. You can obtain a copy of the Her character, Cassie, is a fun-loving flight attendant who gets into a huge problem. 3. But not dwelling on that, the show quite obviously passes the Bechdel Test, with a strong . Despite Lola being considered one of the most well-rounded female characters ever put to film, Run Lola Run still fails The Bechdel Test for one simple reason Lola never has a conversation with another female at any point in the movie. Big Little Lies was produced by Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman, two women who were sick of seeing women portrayed in a one-dimensional way. The movie: This dystopian movie paints a bleak picture of a future where humanity has lost the ability to reproduce. Amongst civil unrest and economic collapse, Theo unwittingly becomes responsible for a young pregnant refugee, Kee, who he must protect against all odds. Land acknowledgements are a way for us to reflect upon the duality of our work while we work within our team, our community, and our client organizations to promote greater inclusivity and abolish inequities, we ourselves still perpetuate and contribute to various forms of historical and present oppression. The best movies that pass the Bechdel Test are female-positive and great watches in their own right. and indemnify Journal Media in relation to such content and their ability to make such content, But, even though this movie passes the Bechdel Test, it doesn't pass the Dangerous Bear Trope Test. Love and hate, fear and obsession, joy and anger, are all represented in their dance. Finally, the mother/daughter scenes have nothing to do with Bill and everything to do with The Bride realising that the reason for her revenge - her dead child - has actually been alive all this time. They exchange quips a few times, such as when Mrs. Weasley utters the iconic line of "Not my daughter, you bitch" to Bellatix as she protects Ginny. Women comprised 17% of directors working on the 250 top grossing films in 2021, down from 18% in 2020. Fox Searchlight Pictures. Its won all the awards, and for good reason. 6 'The Social Network'. Star Wars: The Last JediWhile Carrie Fisher has always been a strong female presence in the Star Wars series, The Last Jedi takes female interaction to a whole new level. The Bechdel Test is a test for whether a movie contains: Its commonly used as a commentary about the lack of female representation in Hollywood. Will and Grace also scores highly, through Grace-Karen and to a lesser extent Karen-Rosario conversations. Despite having three strong female characters in Arwen, Eowyn, and Galadriel, theyre all in completely different parts of Middle Earth and they never even meet, much less talk to each other. This special show gives us hope, makes us feel good, and reminds us that aging doesnt have to be awful (despite all those anti-aging ads). A paraplegic dude gets his brothers hand-me-down remote control alien, falls in love with another alien, fights off a bunch of humans, and decides he likes being an alien more, because apparently he thinks living on a planet full of terrifying animals and waiting for the humans to come back sounds like a goodtime. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Fox Searchlight Pictures They trade quips a few times, like when Prof. McGonagall makes a comment about always wanting to use that spell to Mrs. Weasley when she brings the stone statues to life, or when Mrs. Weasley calls Bellatrix a bitchbut no one actually responds and, yknow, talks. Absolutely. And so are five other '90s tattoo styles. The movie: Jess loves football, but she comes from an orthodox Sikh background, which means her traditional parents want her to give up playing and go to university, become a doctor, and marry a nice Indian boy. In a world where superhero movies reign supreme, it's hard to imagine any of them not passing the Bechdel Test. Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, (Lets ignore the fact that the alien was a walking penis-monster, as this was before the Xenomorphs had established sexes the Queens werent introduced until 1986sAliens.). Beyond the central relationship between those two women, any time theres a moment between women features the show at its best. In order to pass, a film must feature at least two women on screen talking to each other about. However, its not the case that these shows were full of male-male conversations without female involvement: as seen by the fact that no show lies below 0.8 on the y-axis, these shows had as many, or almost as many, male-female conversations, as male-male conversations. There's a third named female character, Agent Maria Hill (Colbie Smulders), but she only directs orders to her staff and there's no dialogue. I havent sat down to do a critical analysis or anything, but I bet 95% of Breaking Bad episodes would fail the test. Another Best Picture Oscar winner that despite being groundbreaking in its representation of a gay black man, fails to have two women with names having one single teeny-tiny conversation about anything. New York? Over the years, there has been an increasing number of movies that pass the Bechdel test. Failing the test doesnt mean the movies evil or anti-woman, or that passing makes it some sort of strongly feminist movie. While the show is problematic in a few important ways, it does move the needle, but frankly its just nice to watch fantasy with less cleavage for a change. An extra big kick in the nuts to Star Wars fans: The prequel trilogy actually passes the test (partially). Whether related to law, business, or politics, Diane, Lucca, Marissa, and Liz in particular had stunning moments of grace, confidence, and jaw dropping cool that we simply loved watching. But the show is very, very real. Wikipedia says that Ms. Bechdel prefers the name "Bechdel-Wallace test". A scene fails this step if any of the three lines in the back-and-forth mention any of the main male characters by name, a male pronoun like he or his, or any of a short list of other male identifiers, such as men, boyfriend, dad, or mr. "Glitch" is a drama that has earned its rightful place in any discussion about feminist science-fiction. The measure sometimes is enhanced by adding that the two female characters be named in the film. When Ive seen people discussing the Bechdel test with regard to television, theyre usually talking about individual episodes and not the series as a whole. In fact, theyre kinda just flat characters who the male characters ignore or bang in bathrooms when its dramatically appropriate. Do those bacta tanks grow babies,too? Ombudsman, and our staff operate within the Code of Practice. Women are not always these well-dressed, confident, and successful creatures; sometimes were just uncomfortable in our own skin. For the most part, the shows that pass the Bechdel Test are shows about women who are devoted to their careers, Leslie Knope, Olivia Pope, Alicia Florrick. Have we missed anything? Thank you for subscribing to ENTITY. All Rights Reserved. This was probably intended to refer to a one-on-one conversation, but in sitcoms often a larger group of characters are present in a scene. 4. REVIEWS. advertising. To identify female characters, I manually selected names from the list of all speaking characters in the dataset, including both major and minor characters, but excluding unnamed characters like Waitress. And its been surprisingly challenging for movies and TV shows to pass this basic test. Yes, Good Girls is about three women who find themselves caught in an organized crime ringyet its not that dark (except for a few scenes). The Bechdel test ( / bkdl / BEK-dl) [1] is a measure of the representation of women in film (and, by extension, in fiction in general). The twentysomething BFFs navigate life in New York City while getting into the most bizarre yet weirdly relatable situations. We love this list and think many of them go farther than just passing the Bechdel test. The test is named for Alison Bechdel, creator of the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For, who made it known to the world with this strip. The Legend of Korra might regularly fail both because of the ensemble, but later seasons have a majority female cast. To pass the Test, the movie must include at least two women, who have names in the film, and that have a conversation with each other about something other than a man. Its clear that their relationships with each other, as well as with the larger community of human computers, gives them the support they use to succeed. Although they spend a good portion of the film apart they still manage to have a many conversations about important things like their love for each other and saving their Kingdom from a perpetual winter. To pass, a movie must have two named women converse about something other than a man. And, sure, maybe its not realistic to have female characters in historically accurate movies set on ships in the 18th century, such as 2003sMaster and Commander with Russell Crowe, which features zero females. Miramax Films While they both grapple with these feelings, we get to see how gorgeously complicated the human experience is through the lens of this intense and beautifully acted series.