Thursday, 3 April 2014 04:49 pm
(no subject)
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deckardcanineMuch as I respect the Bechdel test, if only for calling attention to the relative marginalization of ladies in cinema, I've grown dissatisfied with its binary pass-fail system. The Bechdel Test Movie List goes a step further with symbols to indicate which criteria, if any, the given movies fail to meet. But if you haven't committed those symbols to memory, their meaning is not immediately evident. I still don't get the inspiration for the third one.
I hereby propose a numerical scale, possibly to be depicted with rows of filled or empty stars like Netflix ratings (or perhaps female signs instead):
0 = There are no women.
1 = There is exactly one woman.
2 = There are two or more women, but they never talk to each other.
3 = Two or more women talk to each other, but never about anything besides a man.
4 = Two or more women talk a little, once or twice, about something other than a man. In other words, it just barely passes the Bechdel test.
5 = Two or more women talk multiple times or for a long time about something other than a man. In other words, it easily passes the Bechdel test.
In cases where the distinction is ambiguous, we can put in a half star.
While we're at it, let's replace "women" with "female characters" and "man" with "male character(s)," because why should only adults matter? I'd also consider adding "major," by which I mean important enough to mention in a synopsis, so female extras don't make the difference in the lower scores.
I hereby propose a numerical scale, possibly to be depicted with rows of filled or empty stars like Netflix ratings (or perhaps female signs instead):
0 = There are no women.
1 = There is exactly one woman.
2 = There are two or more women, but they never talk to each other.
3 = Two or more women talk to each other, but never about anything besides a man.
4 = Two or more women talk a little, once or twice, about something other than a man. In other words, it just barely passes the Bechdel test.
5 = Two or more women talk multiple times or for a long time about something other than a man. In other words, it easily passes the Bechdel test.
In cases where the distinction is ambiguous, we can put in a half star.
While we're at it, let's replace "women" with "female characters" and "man" with "male character(s)," because why should only adults matter? I'd also consider adding "major," by which I mean important enough to mention in a synopsis, so female extras don't make the difference in the lower scores.