tv shows that pass the bechdel test tv shows that pass the bechdel test

Kate McKinnon was everything. It could have been so easy to write just ONE more female into the story. 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. Please know that these are only a portion of the new television series passing the test. The Office increased its pass rate during its run, as did Seinfeld and Frasier, with the exception of their final seasons. The rise in the overall number is due to increases in the percentages of women working as executive producers and producers. Pipers boyfriend talks to his dad, but usually about Piper. City Lights (1931) G | 87 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance 8.5 Rate 99 Metascore Enter the Bechdel Test, which was created in 1985 by cartoonist Alison Bechdel in a now-famous comic strip.Essentially, the Bechdel Test is a metric which determines whether a movie or TV series pays ample attention to its women characters. The TV shows that have captivated audiences in lockdown include Unorthodox, Normal People, Killing Eve and I May Destroy You. 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). But there's no back-and-forth dialogue that actually amounts to a conversation. 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. #ForeverAlone. The Bechdel is a good test to show general representation of women in film/tv, and should not be used to critique the value or lack thereof, of any specific film/tv. Zoe Delahunty-Light. (Wikimedia) Virginia. 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. To pass the Bechdel Test, two female characters who have names must have a conversation with each other about something other than a man. 3. for more than one minute of screen time. So, love them or hate them, you can probably relate to at least one of them. Spoiler alert: Her secret doesnt stay a secret, and when her real age is revealed, she has to figure out how to repair broken relationships. She later also attributed the idea to her friend Liz Wallace and to Virginia Woolfs writings. You will have a very real assessment of how much screen time this element has. How it passes: This ones obvious. The Bechdel test was designed by cartoonist Alison Bechdel in 1985. If there were ever a female landing party member and a love interest for Kirk in the same episodethey usually just glared at each other. Doesn't Lara need any friends? (Episode III does still fail, though. To pass the test, a film needs to meet 3very simple criteria. Fantasies are notoriously male-dominated (Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings, we see you!). Failing the test doesnt mean the movies evil or anti-woman, or that passing makes it some sort of strongly feminist movie. Neither speak to each other or ever meet. More than that, all the women are fiercely strong and morally questionable, presenting a version of women not often seen in the cinema. There must be two female characters in the scene. The Social Network stars Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin . Alright, now were heading into the darker category. Amongst civil unrest and economic collapse, Theo unwittingly becomes responsible for a young pregnant refugee, Kee, who he must protect against all odds. 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. Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini form an unlikely friendship over, well, the death of Applegates late husband. This evil stepmother figure in Disneys 1998 remake is finally receiving the appreciation she always deserved. This is straightforward, as the transcripts contain scene indicators, usually. Ted LassoWhile it may be a mans name in the title, this might be one of our favorite TV shows that passes the Bechdel test with flying colors. G LOW, Netflix's new series about a troupe of female wrestlers in the 80s, opens with a dig at the lack of roles for women in the entertainment business. Seems simple enough, right? Aaron Sorkin, the films writer, actually commented on the lack of three-dimensional female characters in an interview with Stephen Colbert, saying that the women are prizes. Happily there have been some absolutely stellar standouts as of late which not only pass the Bechdel test, but also move beyond this low bar into portraying powerful and moving performances with real substance and impactful storytelling. Are there any TV shows that fail the Bechdel Test. By providing the information below you will receive early-bird invitations to our events, exclusive musings tailored to your interests, and access to our curated mentorship program. and RollingNews.ie unless otherwise stated. US cartoonist Alison Bechdel came up with the test in a 1985 comic strip: to pass, a film must have two female characters who speak about something other than a man. And as a sidenote, can we just say, basically anything that Laura Dern does is freaking gold. The dramedy follows Issa, her best friend Molly, and their other girlfriends as they navigate life in Los Angeles. 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. Mary Berry Cooks / Headline Publishing Group / Headline Publishing Group. Star Trek: DiscoveryThe latest addition to the Star Trek universe is soooo goooooood. Younger is a marathon-worthy series about a fortysomething who pretends to be in her twenties in order to break back into publishing. How about Girls? The information needed to compute the BT for every scene and episode can be obtained from these transcripts with only a little further work. The Bechdel test is one of the most common ways that a movie or TV show's female representation can be judged. Sam Loveridge. Scandal: Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) spends her time cleaning up the scandals that could wrack Washington D.C. and its political elite. New Line Cinema. The Bechdel Test is a type of sexism test in the bracket of films. It's commonly used as a commentary about the lack of female representation in Hollywood. The Bechdel Test, if you're not familiar with it, is a benchmark for movies developed by Alison Bechdel in 1985. In fact, theyre kinda just flat characters who the male characters ignore or bang in bathrooms when its dramatically appropriate. Example: A woman has only one minor female friend, all other characters are male. Easily passing the Bechdel test, Dead to Me brings together two women with completely different ways of being in the world together to deal with some wild bananas weird stuff. No females speak to each other in thatone.). Do those bacta tanks grow babies,too? To pass the Bechdel test, a movie must follow three rules that are supposed to show if the story has a good representation of women. Yes, please. Rebecca Nicholson. A film that excavates layers of myth and memory to find the elusive truth at the core of a family of storytellers. Often, the two women must be named, prominent characters to meet the criteria. Were ready for Season 6! At the time, hardly any films could pass it, and many forms of media still struggle to pass it today. The meaning of BECHDEL TEST is a set of criteria used as a test to evaluate a work of fiction (such as a film) on the basis of its inclusion and representation of female characters. TV shows tend to run far longer than movies and thus, most of them end up passing the Bechdel Test. The Bechdel test is the most popular tool for assessing female representation in film. (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.). It uses the same lines identified above as part of a back-and-forth between two characters, and sums these by the gender of the pair of characters involved: female-female, male-male, or male-female. She quips that the last film she was able to go see was Alien in 1979. If you were ever looking for a film that could pass the Bechdel Test, this would be it. There were a few named female characters, but they were all minor enough that its plausible that they never talked to each other. Omit "The" from search term for best results. Rachel Weber is the US Managing Editor of GamesRadar+ and lives in Brooklyn, New York. Rate. Creators, writers, and stars Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle portray versions of themselves in the year 2000. Girls TripGirls Trip is everything. The Bechdel Test is a measure of gender bias in movies. Anything, even if its something stereotypically feminine, like shopping or shoes. Black Widow, the two characters never interact to have a conversation. Some deviations from reality were for humor; some were for drama. A hobbit gets caught up in a huge war when he has to take a magic ring right to the bad guys front door. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. The three women talk about their work launching Project Mercury into space (ranging from aerospace engineering, to analytical geometry, to calculating trajectories, to phenomenally advanced maths), as well as about the professional obstacles in their way due to the prejudiced attitudes of their male, white co-workers. Congratulations to Fast & Furious 7: Furious 7 for becoming the fifth movie in Big Stupid Movie Month to pass the Bechdel test. A lot of episodes do pass, but not as many as youd think, and only barely. Fox Searchlight Pictures. Get the best gaming deals, reviews, product advice, competitions, unmissable gaming news and more! In 2020, the archive shows that 78 films passed the Bechdel Test out of 329 films released in the U.S. and Canada. In 1985, American cartoonist Alison Bechdel included the idea for the Bechdel test (also known as the BechdelWallace test) in a comic strip called The Rule. The Bechdel (pronounced beck-dell) Test was first created in 1985 by cartoonist Allison Bechdel. Beyond the central relationship between those two women, any time theres a moment between women features the show at its best. The View from the Window by Carina Paredes-Rivera. I havent sat down to do a critical analysis or anything, but I bet 95% of Breaking Bad episodes would fail the test. * I cant remember Uhura ever talking to Rand or Nurse Chapel.**. While Enid occupies herself with finding him a girlfriend, she and Becky grow further apart. On the list of TV shows I regularly watch, the only one I can . This is a function of the number of main characters of each gender available to take part in storylines: in the extreme case of Will and Grace, if the characters were split into two pairs, the only combination that allows same-gender conversations is Will-Jack and Grace-Karen, whereas as the other two possible pairings involve different-gender conversations. Although nearly the entire show involves interactions strictly between men. The best movies that pass the Bechdel Test are female-positive and great watches in their own right. Alison Brie's Ruth . A Medium publication sharing concepts, ideas and codes. Journal Media does not control and is not responsible So viewers would expect it to pass the Bechdel test with flying colors - and it does. 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. In fact it can be pretty spectacular, especially when youre hanging out with other women! 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. pic.twitter.com/rW4NDxMObf Seamus Ryan (@meanderingtripe) March 1, 2021 There were several recurring nurse characters who had names, but when they talked to each other then IIRC it was usually about the male characters. Users are reminded that they are fully responsible for their own Sadness, joy, frustration, bittersweetness. Growing up, TV was mostly used as a way to entertain oneself. 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. In fact, no two female characters actually even speak to each other. Votes: 13,610 | Gross: $1.60M. 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. To pass the Bechdel test, a work of fiction must fulfil the above criteria at least once. Most are finally passing the Bechdel test, aka a test that analyzes a scene where two or more women talk about anything else other than men. Yes, theres boy drama and girl drama (Kat identifies as bisexual), but the show isnt about romantic relationshipsits about friendships. We encourage you to, Ten Recent TV Shows That Pass the Bechdel Test, TV shows and movies that pass the Bechdel test, research conducted on film and gender in 2021, How to measure the impact of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Training, Understanding Social Identities in the Workplace. Its just something that makes you think how few fully developed female characters there are. Law & Order in the early seasons wouldnt have, with no starring female cast members. Wrong. Absolutely. created content and their own posts, comments and submissions and fully and effectively warrant Disney Plus. I assume Yeoman Rand and Sulu dont count. Finally, although we can guess what the result will be, I computed the male equivalent of the test: two male characters must talk about something other than a female character. Data scientist and former climate physicist, with special interest in politics and sports analytics, Having acquired hundreds of sitcom episode transcripts. By role, women accounted for 17% of writers (even with 17% in 2020), 26% of executive producers (up from 21% in 2020), 32% of producers (up from 30% in 2020), 22% of editors (even with 22% in 2020), and 6% of cinematographers (even with 6% in 2020).. Please note that uses cookies to improve your experience and to provide This usually occurs when Elaine overlaps briefly with a minor female character in a scene. posts, comments and submissions available. 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. On the list of TV shows I regularly watch, the only one I can point to that definitively fails is HBOs Looking. Its a must watch! It covers domestic violence, marriage hardships, and the misconception of perfection. She talks to her father, her boyfriend, the security guard at her fathers bankand not a single woman. It also crushed the Golden Globes in 2017. And this is despite the fact that Cate Blanchett is Liv Tyler's grandmother in the film, so it would have been completely possible for them to schedule some sort of visit together to say goodbye in case Middle Earth went down in flames! Second, the women must talk to each other. It doesnt matter what age you are or if you have kids or not, because its that good. At a time when toxic masculinity is still very much alive and well, this entire show is a breath of fresh air. Lauren OCallaghan. When Issa speaks to herself in the mirror. The sparkling, progressive dialogue pretty much consists of, He doesnt need you, he has me., And Andrea the android talks to Nurse Chapel about a man in What Are Little Girls made of. They discuss many different topics through the film, including the trajectory of their lives after graduating high school, but rarely men. Was it perfect? Henry V. Surprisingly enough, this classic Shakespearean History passes the Bechdel Test. Harry and his friends (several of whom are female) begin making their final moves to take down Lord Voldemort. Here are ten television shows today that pass the Bechdel Test. Pixar's record in general is pretty poor. Friends, Will and Grace, and Married With Children had more conversations between different gender characters than same gender. So real. Its a good thing that she has good friends to help her do it. Big Little LiesSpeaking of Laura Dern, lets talk about television for a moment. Mary Berry Cooks / Headline Publishing Group Currently, only the titles of the movies are searchable. Heres how the test works a piece of fiction has to satisfy three requirements: Thats it. The only problem is, theres another bridesmaid trying to muscle in on her territory. The titular named Lara is the only named female in this movie. Hidden FiguresThis top box office earner deserves every bit of its acclaim, and easily passes the Bechdel test. In some cases, my processing couldnt pick up the scene breaks, or the transcripts didnt contain any; these episodes are each treated as one long scene, which makes it easier to pass this first step, but only slightly easier to pass the other steps than when scenes are properly detected. The Bechdel test is a simple test to evaluate films (and other media) for portrayals of women. Despite having an array of fierce and funny female characters, the last movie of the Harry Potter installments disappointingly doesn't feature a single conversation between the women. We can look at the results for each show, broken down by test step. There's only two named female characters in the whole of the 2008 Oscar winner of Best Picture: Jamal's mother (who dies early on), and Jamal's love interest. But the Internet commenters can still find things to get upset about - go ahead, get angry! 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. The Bechdel Test (BT), which checks for a rudimentary level of female-centricity in media, has elsewhere been covered thoroughly for movies, with a crowd-sourced manual approach, but not, to my knowledge, for television, except at a high level or in very selected cases. It sounds simple,. However, since her name is never mentioned in the film, it fails the test. Entertainment News. del test/n. PH: (01) 6489130, Lo-Call 1890 208 080 or email: info@presscouncil.ie. 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. Never saw it, but Im to understand its woman centric. 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. That said, I wouldnt be terribly surprised if MASH** didnt pass even that loose version of the test. Youll fall in love with these badass Black women who justget it. To join our community, just fill out the form below. This site uses cookies. To pass, the work simply has . News images provided by Press Association New York? Euphoria doesnt shy away from topics that would never have been included in a teen show ten years ago. Lers kick things off with a choice that surely wont disappoint. note Additionally. Her character, Cassie, is a fun-loving flight attendant who gets into a huge problem. If youre behind on this one, too, then Im honestly kinda surprised you even know what movies are. The Bechdel test was designed to point out how infrequently women in Hollywood movies are presented as characters in their own right, as opposed to adjuncts or even accessories to the male characters. There are braces, acne, and lots of humiliating moments. Are there any TV shows you can think of though that fail the Bechdel Test? How it passes: Dont let the name fool you, Children of Men (opens in new tab) passes the Bechdel Test with flying colours. Well, surprisingly hard to manage it seems, with up to 50% of films failing the test. and TV shows. None of the women in the movie ever talk to each other. And by god, is she an unforgettable one. Nope. The Wire had a lesbian couple, but they werent a focus. Most of the cast is female. Kee talks to revolutionary leader Julian and her midwife Miriam at many points throughout the movie, and its almost never about a man. Id think similar reasoning would apply to the Sopranos, the Wire, The Shield, etc. Its pass rate drops dramatically at steps 2 and 3. In order to pass the test, a film must feature at least two women who speak to each other on a subject that does not revolve around men. Even shows that are deemed feminist sometimes dont pass the testand, frankly, its frustrating. Will and Grace also scores highly, through Grace-Karen and to a lesser extent Karen-Rosario conversations. 1. 20th Century Fox. Shes also right pretty much all of the time and her male captains need to listen to her more often. It could be about dog poo. 5. For a movie or TV show to pass the test, it has to feature at least two women talking to each other about a topic other than a man. 6) Encanto. Starring the super brilliant Sonequa Martin-Green as First Officer Michael Burnam, she was raised by Vulcans, though is human, so shes a fascinating character to watch. Lauren OCallaghan. Miramax Films Sex and drugs are a large part of the show, but so are friendships, as Rue, Jules, Lexi, Kat, Cassie, and Maddy dominate the series. Another rule, that is sometimes included, is . The Bechdel Test asks three key questions about a movie's female characters. The test has three criteria: 1. the movie must have at least two female characters, 2. who talk to each other about something other than a man, and. She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. She works closely with Abbey Whalen (Darby Stanchfield), and has numerous confrontations with First Lady (Bellamy Young). The next plot explores further how male and female characters interacted in each shows episodes. 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. They confront him, defeat him, age weirdly, and everyone lives happily everafter. Sounds simple, right? Theyre flawed, complicated, and sometimes make horrible decisions. 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. In order to pass, a film must feature at least two women on screen talking to each other about. The WitcherAnd our second fantasy series is The Witcher, which, despite a lot of male energy (wayy more um, cleavage, in this one), does indeed pass the Bechdel test a few times Yennefer and Tissaias complicated relationship, as well as Ciri and Eithns short time together, and honestly probably more but were still working our way through this story (hey, we still have pandemic time to watch!). GamesRadar+ is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, Couldn't have used all that time to write in a conversation between two female characters that wasn't Neytiri and her mother discussing Jake, about, I don't know - like the fact that their whole planet was under threat of being destroyed? While Im pretty sure their husbands/boyfriends back home, and the 4077s doctors did come up, it was mostly about Margaret. A kid on a distant planet finds out about a magical force from an old man and he learns to be a Jedi and they fight against the Empire and yada yada. The female characters must talk to each other. An extra big kick in the nuts to Star Wars fans: The prequel trilogy actually passes the test (partially). Most of them fail, even ones full of female characters. Then again, its possible that the nurses exchanged at least a few lines complaining about their living conditions, talking about the war, etc., and a conversation about treating a patient who happens to be a man is arguably not really a conversation about a man. Your home for data science. Mark Zuckerberg and his buddies spend two hours screwing over each other and everyone else around them in pursuit of Facebook billions, apparently in an attempt to prove that nerds cant havefriends. And its been surprisingly challenging for movies and TV shows to pass this basic test. "Glitch". I cant remember a landing party with more than one female. The Bechdel Test is a simple test to see if a work of fiction passes the feminist [] Despite having two kickass female characters who are named, Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) a.k.a. The women definitely rule the show and its no surprise that women are also behind the scenes as well here. 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 Bechdel test is a method used to determine the representation of women in film. The Bechdel Test, Bechdel-Wallace Test, or the Mo Movie Measure [1], is a sort of litmus test for female presence in movies and TV. The percentage of women working as directors on the top 100 films retreated from 16% in 2020 to 12% in 2021. The best movies that pass the Bechdel Test are the ones that really, truly, pass with all the flying colors. Here are our favorites! Pretty sure Peep Show passes the Bechdel test. Enter search term: Or, you can show the list for one or more years: Most people probably werent as mindful of the cringe-worthy storylines, one-dimensional characters, and lack of diversity that was, unfortunately, part of the norm before the early 2000s. EEEP! Rise Together is key to creating greater opportunity by providing you with the support, knowledge, and community to break through barriers. Popularized by cartoonist Alison Bechdel in a 1985 strip called Dykes to Watch Out For and inspired by Virginia Woolf, the test measures the representation of women in film, television, books . TV Show Recaps; TV Reviews; TV Lists; TV News & Trailers; TV Features; The L Word; The L Word: Generation Q; . The only problem is that the conversation is about Jake, who, you probably noticed, is a man. We are now operating in a virtual space, but we can still honor and name the physical spaces we all inhabit. They might as well be talking to themselves (or, more likely, the audience). 5. But times are changing and there are a handful of incredible examples of ladies crushing mainstream media. 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. Lauren OCallaghan. According to the . GLOWThis Netflix series on its second season features a fictionalized account of how GLOW (Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling) came to be a cultural phenomenon in the 1980s. Atomic BlondeYes, please give us more Charlize Theron! Most are finallypassing the Bechdel test, aka a test that analyzes a scene where two or more women talk about anything else other than men. In 1985, American cartoonist Alison Bechdel. People tend to have strong feelings about the Lena Dunham-created comedy. 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. According to . 2. Who talk to each other. The world has changed since the Bechdel-Wallace Test was created Hulu When The Bechdel-Wallace Test first appeared in 1985, the world was an entirely different place. The movie's total kill count of . This show might possibly be the highlight of 2017. BA1 1UA. Avatar (2009) James Cameron's 2009 blockbuster movie does have strong feminist themes but fails the Test in one key aspect: its strong female leads Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) and Dr. Grace Augustine . By continuing to browse, you agree to the use of cookies. submissions or preferences. The movie: In this particular post-apocalyptic world, children are sent to battle to the death on TV. At this point in time, the SGO team is fully remote, and we are located across the United States. The movie: The Bride is hellbent on - surprise surprise - killing Bill because he and his assassins tried to kill her and her unborn child many years ago. For more information on cookies please refer to our cookies You can obtain a copy of the The Bechdel Test is a metric used for measuring how women are represented in a given film. But, even though this movie passes the Bechdel Test, it doesn't pass the Dangerous Bear Trope Test. Lauren OCallaghan. Have we missed anything? This movie about the pressures and pleasures of family-life, will have you teary . Summit Entertainment Its about a group of young gay men in San Francisco and the only named female character is Doris. Refine See titles to watch instantly, titles you haven't rated, etc 79 titles 1.