BECHDEL-WALLACE TEST

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The Bechdel Test is named after the American cartoonist Alison Bechdel. It is also known as the Bechdel-Wallace test. It is a measure of the representation of women in fiction. The test is used as an indicator to show how active women in the entire field of film and calls for gender inequality. The test came into existence in 1985 which first was published in the tongue-in-cheek comic strip The Rule and then became a basic thing to see if women are fairly represented or given a chance in a film. It is also said that the Bechdel-Wallace test Alison credited the idea for the test to her friend Liz Wallace. 

For a film to pass the Bechdel test, the movie must follow the following ground rules:
  1. The film must have at least two female characters. 
  2. The two characters must have a name.
  3. The characters must talk to each other about something other than talking about a man.
The test is not to show how feminist a movie is but it highlights how male-dominated cinema really is. The test first appeared in the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For.  

In Vogue Magazine, it is said that, although it has been thirty-five years since the test was discovered, the films are not meeting the test's basic requirements. The Bechdel Test is an informal way to valuate bias against women in films and other media. The test is important because it highlights something that says a lot about the film industry's priorities. It also brings out the subconscious values in our society and the lack of convincing women in movies is purely a result of hatred. The intent of the test is to understand if a movie is giving a fair chance to women. 

There are a number of movies that can be taken as an example of how passing the test does not really matter. The movie Transformers hardly passed the test because from a scene in the movie the two female characters talk about something other than a man. So, this counts as following the rules of the test. The movie To All the Boys I've Loved Before, passed the Bechdel test as more than one scene in the movie involves two female characters talking about something other than a man. The famous movie Titanic has also passed the Bechdel test, there was a scene where Rose and her mother have multiple conversations that do not involve men.

 

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