History MediaNotes / TheBechdelTest

* Fully [[InverstedTrope Inversted]] in the ''Series/GLOW2017'' episode "Outward Bound" where the female cast of GLOW decide to go camping together, and not a single line of dialogue is spoken by a male character in the entire episode, and even mentions about male characters are incidental.

-->'''Veronica:''' Betty, now that it's just us girls, and at the risk of us failing the Bechdel test, are you legitimately cool with Archie and me? Swear on The September Issue?[[note]]a documentary film about Anna Wintour editing the September 2007 issue of Vogue magazine[[/note]]\\
'''Betty:''' And on my copy of ''Forever'' by Judy Blume.

-->'''Veronica:''' Betty, now that it's just us girls, and at the risk of us failing the Bechdel test, are you legitimately cool with Archie and me? Swear on the September issue?\\

* UsefulNotes/DeggansRule (aka Race Bechdel Test): At least two nonwhite human characters appear in a story where race is not a central theme.

* [[http://disney-blog.com/2011/05/the-bechdel-test-and-disney-films/ This blog]] references the Bechdel Test as it relates to Disney animated movies. It claims Disney movies tend to pass more than Pixar films. Many Disney films have two female characters interacting about something other than a man, but fail to pass the test due to [[AnimalTalk one of the parties being an animal]].

* [[https://bechdeltest.com/]] is a user-created website which attempts to document whether every film in existence fulfills the test. There are currently over 10,000 films listed.

* [[http://www.themarysue.com/star-trek-bechdel-test/ This article]] applies the Bechdel Test to ''Franchise/StarTrek''. Unsurprisingly, ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' has the lowest passrate (7.5%); somewhat surprisingly, ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'', a prequel made 50 years later, has the second-lowest (39%). This is probably because these two series only went from TheSmurfettePrinciple, with only one female on the main cast for TOS (Creator/NichelleNichols as Uhura) to TwoGirlsToATeam for Enterprise (Linda Park as Hoshi Sato and Jolene Blalock as T'Pol). ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' has the highest (86.9%), and also the only season to have a 100% passrate (season 5); whether by coincidence or not, it was also the only series at time of writing with a female captain, Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn Janeway (it has since been joined by ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' and ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'', both of which similarly pass with flying colors).

If that sounds to you like a pretty easy standard to meet, it is. That's the point! Yet, try applying the test to the media you consume for a while. There's a good chance you'll be surprised; mainstream media that passes is ''far'' less common than you might think.

# ''about something other than a man or men''.[[note]] An addendum some claim is that marriage, babies, or romance are indirectly about men and therefore also fail, whereas some point out there is a big difference between "Isn't married life hard/wonderful!" & "Babies are so cute, I wish I had one!" on the one hand, and "OK, so I think this is how we should go about the Madison property settlement" & "Don't give that medicine to the baby, it'll kill her!" on the other. There is also a problem with politics, particularly whether talking about a male politician counts or not; there’s a similar issue with professional discussion (e.g. a woman cop and a woman medical examiner discussing characteristics of the corpse of a murder victim who happens to have been a man).[[/note]]

# ''about something other than a man or men''.[[note]] An addendum some claim is that marriage, babies, or romance are indirectly about men and therefore also fail, whereas some point out there is a big difference between "Isn't married life hard/wonderful!" & "Babies are so cute, I wish I had one!" on the one hand, and "OK, so I think this is how we should go about the Madison property settlement" & "Don't give that medicine to the baby, it'll kill her!" on the other. There is also the problem with politics, and whether talking about a male politician counts or not.[[/note]]

* The Reverse Bechdel Test: [[GenderFlip The roles of men and women are swapped]].[[note]]An estimated 90% of works pass the Reverse Bechdel Test, [[http://www.passthebechdeltest.com/faq according to this link]], which, in comparison to the Bechdel Test, highlights the gender disparity problems.[[/note]]

** ''Series/Class2016'': Episode 1:

* ''ComicBook/SuperiorFoesOfSpiderMan'' references the test openly with Beetle complaining about how her life is failing the test since [[OneOfTheBoys she hangs out with a bunch of guys]].
-->"My life is failing the Bechdel test."

* ''WebVideo/StuffYouLike'' references this when reviewing ''Film/{{Underworld}}'' [[http://blip.tv/stuffyoulike/halloween-special-5-ridiculously-entertaining-things-about-underworld-5680230 here.]] The scene is [[ActionGirl Selene]] and Erika (briefly) discussing dresses (before going on to talk about... umm... men).

# ''It includes at least two women'',[[note]] Some make the addendum that the women must be [[NominalImportance named]] characters [[/note]]

The Bechdel Test[[note]]AKA Bechdel-Wallace Test, or the Mo Movie Measure named after Mo, the main character of ''Dykes to Watch Out For'', even though it was introduced in a one-off strip before Mo was introduced[[/note]] is a litmus test for female presence in fictional media. The test is named for Alison Bechdel, creator of the comic strip ''ComicStrip/DykesToWatchOutFor'', who made it known to the world with [[https://i.pinimg.com/originals/8b/12/da/8b12da8784a50c7777c0cadeccf1a0d0.jpg this strip.]]

There's nothing necessarily wrong with any film flunking the Bechdel Test. Indeed, there are films with female protagonists that fail it, such as the 2013 movie ''Film/{{Gravity}}'', a movie about a female astronaut attempting to survive a disaster in space, in which there are only two major characters, one female and one male. Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'' shows that a film can even fail the test for the ''same'' reasons why it has strong feminist themes: the movie discusses sexism (and overcoming it), and thus is set in a world too sexist for it to pass the test. The protagonist starts out in an environment where women are valued only for their ability to get a man and [[BabyFactory produce babies]], and then [[SweetPollyOliver moves into an environment]] where there are no other women at all because it's not allowed. A fair number of top-notch works have legitimate reasons for [[ChromosomeCasting including no women]], such as being set among soldiers or sailors at war on the front lines (which, for most of history in most places, has been a nigh-exclusively male domain). What's a problem is that ''so many'' movies fail the test, creating a pattern which says uncomfortable things about the way Hollywood handles gender.

There's nothing necessarily wrong with any film flunking the Bechdel Test. Indeed, there are films with female protagonists that fail it, such as the 2013 movie ''Film/{{Gravity}}'', a movie about a female astronaut attempting to survive a disaster in space, in which there are only two major characters, one female and one male. Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'' shows that a film can even fail the test for the ''same'' reasons why it has strong feminist themes: the movie discusses sexism (and overcoming it), and thus is set in a world too sexist for it to pass the test. The protagonist starts out in an environment where women are valued only for their ability to get a man and [[BabyFactory produce babies]], and then [[SweetPollyOliver moves into an environment]] where there are no other women at all because it's not allowed. A fair number of top-notch works have legitimate reasons for [[ChromosomeCasting including no women]], such as being set among soldiers or sailors actively at war (which, for most of history in most places, has been a nigh-exclusively male domain). What's a problem is that ''so many'' movies fail the test, creating a pattern which says uncomfortable things about the way Hollywood handles gender.

There's nothing necessarily wrong with any film flunking the Bechdel Test. Indeed, there are films with female protagonists that fail it, such as the 2013 movie ''Film/{{Gravity}}'', a movie about a female astronaut attempting to survive a disaster in space, in which there are only two major characters, one female and one male. Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'' shows that a film can even fail the test for the ''same'' reasons why it has strong feminist themes: the movie discusses sexism (and overcoming it), and thus is set in a world too sexist for it to pass the test. The protagonist starts out in an environment where women are valued only for their ability to get a man and [[BabyFactory produce babies]], and then [[SweetPollyOliver moves into an environment]] where there are no other women at all because it's not allowed. A fair number of top-notch works have legitimate reasons for [[ChromosomeCasting including no women]], such as being set among soldiers or sailors actively at war (which, for most of history in most places, has been an exclusively male domain). What's a problem is that ''so many'' movies fail the test, creating a pattern which says uncomfortable things about the way Hollywood handles gender.

There's nothing necessarily wrong with any film flunking the Bechdel Test. Indeed, there are films with female protagonists that fail it, such as the 2013 movie ''Film/{{Gravity}}'', a movie about a female astronaut attempting to survive a disaster in space, in which there are only two major characters, one female and one male. Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'' shows that a film can even fail the test for the ''same'' reasons why it has strong feminist themes: the movie discusses sexism (and overcoming it), and thus is set in a world too sexist for it to pass the test. The protagonist starts out in an environment where women are valued only for their ability to get a man and [[BabyFactory produce babies]], and then [[SweetPollyOliver moves into an environment]] where there are no other women at all because it's not allowed. A fair number of top-notch works have legitimate reasons for [[ChromosomeCasting including no women]], such as being set in a warzone. What's a problem is that ''so many'' movies fail the test, creating a pattern which says uncomfortable things about the way Hollywood handles gender.

* In the manga of ''LightNovel/AllYouNeedIsKill'', Shasta makes a reference to running some "Bechdel tests" on Rita's Jacket while making an excuse.

* Briefly {{discussed}} in ''Fanfic/HowToSexVol4To58'' about Tommy's scrambled thoughts on Puffy and Niki's relationship.
-->''"There are only two women in this country and they are dating each other. I think that is called passing the Bechdel Test."''

* Briefly {{discussed}} in ''Fanfic/HowToSexVolFourToFiftyEight'' about Tommy's scrambled thoughts on Puffy and Niki's relationship.

There's nothing necessarily wrong with any film flunking the Bechdel Test. Indeed, there are films with female protagonists that fail it, such as the 2013 movie ''Film/{{Gravity}}'', a movie about a female astronaut attempting to survive a disaster in space, in which there are only two major characters, one female and one male. Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'' shows that a film can even fail the test for the ''same'' reasons why it has strong feminist themes: the movie discusses sexism (and overcoming it), and thus is set in a world too sexist for it to pass the test. The protagonist starts out in an environment where women are valued only for their ability to get a man and [[BabyFactory produce babies]], and then [[SweetPollyOliver moves into an environment]] where there are no other women at all because it's not allowed. A fair number of top-notch works have legitimate reasons for [[ChromosomeCasting including no women]], such as being set in a warzone. What's a problem is that ''so many'' movies fail the test, creating a pattern which says [[UnfortunateImplications uncomfortable things]] about the way Hollywood handles gender.

* The Bechdel test is referenced in ''WebVideo/EpicRapBattlesOfHistory'''s "Music/StevieWonder vs. ComicBook/WonderWoman"; Stevie mentions how Wonder Woman failed the test despite being one of the first superheroines and a prominent female icon. Although on that note, [[CriticalResearchFailure there is no letter grading scale for the test]]. Just a regular pass or fail system.