This Is Informative, You Should Watch It of the Day: Feminist Frequency takes a look at how a significant number of blockbuster films we know and love are incapable of passing Dykes to Watch Out For’s Alison Bechdel’s “Bechdel Test,” which requires a film to fulfill all three of the following requirements: #1. The film has to have at least two women in it; #2. Who talk to each other; #3. About something besides a man.
Pretty eye-opening stuff.
[/film.]
I mean I guess there is a systemic problem? A lot of the movies that she listed were movies about men in a very male-dominated story. I mean, Shawshank Redemption? Was that really a movie that demonstrates a systemic need to only include stories about men, or, was it just a movie that took place inside of a men’s prison? Fight Club? It’s a movie that is about (among other things) the desire of men to prove themselves as masculine. My point is that yes, many movies are tailored to men and sometimes that is complete bullshit, but other times they’re just movies. Just entering into the convo.
P.S. Bechdel’s “Fun Home” is awesome.
I don’t necessarily think Bechdel’s point was to assert that these movies were sexist or overtly problematic, but they just contribute to a larger problem that women’s primary roles within films revolve around men. It was just eye-opening, I still enjoy a lot of the movies she talks about, but it was kind of shocking to realize how valid her point is…
And yeah, several of the films were lacking in female characters because they were movies about men (Shawshank Redemption, Fight Club), but I think the point is that the overwhelming majority of movies that focus on women don’t expand beyond romantic relationships.
I’ll be checking out her work, thanks for the suggestion :)
I completely agree that this is pretty eye-opening. However, my point is that using movies that don’t fit the point that she is making suggests that these movies are wrong just for having stories based around men. It is completely true that most movies are geared towards men and that is a shame. I’m just trying to advocate for the use of creative minds to make stories that revolve around men not because men are better but because sometimes the story that you are telling revolves around men. It just scares me to think of the other side of this argument, that anyone who doesn’t have at least two female roles is sexist. BTW, I’m not suggesting that this is her argument.
