The Bechdel Test: Useful but Ultimately Ineffective

This week, Sweden began implementing a "Bechdel" rating system for all movies released in the country. By implementing a Bechdel-based rating system into all films released for the silver screen, Sweden hopes to bring gender equality to its film industry. While the attempt at pushing gender equality into film is laudable, at least in my opinion, it won't amount to much.

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What is the Bechdel Test?

The Bechdel test, according to Feminist Frequency, was invented by Allison Bechdel in 1985, when she featured the concept in her comic strip Dykes to Look Out For. The concept is simple; in order to meet standards of gender equality, each piece, be it film, novels, etc., must meet three criteria. First, the work must have at least two named women. Simple enough, right? Next, those women must, at some point in the narrative, talk with each other. Lastly, when they talk, it has to be about something other than a man.

Now, as I've said, the Bechdel standards are something that everyone should keep in mind. The fact is that an overwhelming majority of popular films, American and international, utterly fail this test. Strangely enough, Gone with the Wind, a film that features so many anti-equality themes, passes the test with flying colors.

Useful but Ultimately Ineffective

Saying that the Bechdel test is important would be an understatement, in so far as it can be used to open our eyes to the lack of good female-driven stories out there. The problem, especially with the recent decision by Sweden, is that it addresses a symptom instead of the cause. The fact is nobody is going to start writing gender-equal or female-centric pieces until they understand that those are interesting, important stories to tell.

It can't be, or shouldn't be, any surprise to see the staggering statistics around women's issues that are rooted in a fundamentally patriarchal upbringing. The Huffington Post reports that women still make 77 cents for every dollar their male counterparts make. Statistics from the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers show that a shocking 18.3% of the United States Congress, an average between the House's 17.9% and the Senate's 20%, are women. 18.3%! Pages of statistics and anecdotes could be drummed up here in support of the point, but the main idea is this: so long as fundamentally backward ideas and situations affecting the lives of women remain unchanged, no test for equality, Bechdel or otherwise, will mean a thing.

So, Where Do We Start?

The Bechdel test can be used as a social thermometer, a marker of how far things have come and where they are going, but if we want to actually make a change in the representations of women on the big screen, then we need to start educating people from childhood on what equality actually means. Teach little girls that it is perfectly fine to love their Disney Princesses but that life can't be lived waiting for prince charming to come and sweep you away. Teach our little boys that there is more to masculinity than being the guy kicking the door down, lightsaber in hand as they rush to save the princess. In general, show our children that, regardless of their role, e.g. gender, parent, wife, husband, that everyone deserves to have their voice heard; more specifically, we need to teach them that everybody has a story to tell. In doing so, we can improve real-world representations and opinions as well as those represented on screen.

What impact do you think the Bechdel test and the ratings systems it inspires can have?