The Bechdel Test, popularized by Allison Bechdel in 1984, was designed to illustrate the lack of important female roles in movies. This test is extremely simple and only has three criteria that need to be achieved in order for a movie to be classed as having a female character that is integral to the plot. These criteria are that the movie must contain at least to named female characters who talk to each other about something other than a man (Feminist Frequency, 2012). I think that these criteria themselves show that there was, and is, a big problem with important female characters in movies.
These criteria set a shockingly low standards for important female characters, but what is even more shocking is the number of films that fail this test. With standard so low, almost every movie should pass the test, save for films that follow a male’s life, but sadly this is not the case. This goes to show that females are underrepresented and underestimated in society and are seen as not being worthy enough to play important roles in movies and furthermore, society. The ideals and morals in films reflect the ideals and morals of society.
This means that women are seen as unimportant’characters’ in society that should stay in the background being unnamed and unheard. The results found by this test mirror the ideas represented in the book written by Hobbs and Rice; women are nothing without a man and men rule the world (2013). The Bechdel Test is a useful tool in illustrating that there is a problem the importance of female roles in society but it doesn’t solve the problem and it doesn’t even fully show the problem. The test is like a flashlight, it illuminates the problem but doesn’t show it to its full extent.
The Bechdel Test sets the standard so ow that even if a movie passed it doesn’t really show if the movie really had integral female characters and here lies the problem in the test. The test doesn’t really show the extent to which females characters are underused. A two second clip of two named women talking about an orange can allow the test to pass but this is neither meaningful nor integral to the plot of the movie. The Bechdel Test lacks depth but, since the problem is so pronounces, sheds much attention on the problem, allowing people to see that there is a problem and allows them to work to fix said problem.
One film that that passes this test is the 2015 adaptation of Cinderella directed by Kenneth Branagh which, not surprisingly, passes the test. The film follows Ella through her young life. First, we witness the death of her mother (not named) who always told her to “be kind and show compassion”. Then, Ella’s father, thinking that she needs a female presence I her life, remarries a widow (Lady Tremaine) who has two daughters, Anastasia and Drusilla. Shortly after their marriage, Ella’s father dies while on a business trip leaving her in the care of her stepmother and stepsisters who soon turn against Cinderella.
They make Cinderella into their servant girl and banish her to the attic which is to cold and drafty to sleep in so she sleeps by the fire which leaves her covered in ash, leading her stepsisters to rename her Cinderella. One day Cinderella’s stepmother makes her angry and frustrated so she take off on horse into the wood and meets a man, the Prince, who becomes entranced with her personality. They then part ways but the Prince is desperate to see her again so holds a ball for all of the village.
Cinderella wants to go but her Stepmother won’t allow it, destroying her dress and leaving for the ball with her stepsisters. Cinderella, distraught, run to the garden where she meets her Fairy Godmother who fixes everything and sends her to the ball where she falls in love. But Cinderella as to run away from the prince to be home by midnight and loses a glass slipper on the way which the Prince then uses to find her even though she is locked in the attic by her stepmother. It’s no surprise that this film passes the test with flying colours with so many central female characters.
While Cinderella’s mother and the Fairy Godmother are not named, her stepmother and stepsisters are and hold many conversation with Cinderella and each other that revolve around numerous things like clothing, chores, nature and kindness. But, people still tend to have a problem with the story, thinking it feminist. In the film, the stepmother and step sisters obsess over their own looks and constantly put down Cinderella, even her name is a mockery. Then there is also the fact that the Prince ‘saves’ her from her life of misfortune and misery. But I don’t think that this is the case.
Kenneth Branagh, the director of the film, balances the old with the new. He keeps aspects of the original Walt Disney film while modernising the character of Cinderella. The film focuses on the message that you should be kind to others, even if they are not kind themselves instead of beauty. Cinderella is also shown to be kind, courageous and brave with a unique personality which the Prince fall in love with. Yes, she is beautiful, but the Prince does not fall for her beauty but rather is charm. Also, though the Prince does ‘save’ her in a sense, she didn’t really ‘need saving and Cinderella does a lot of the ‘saving herself.
The Bechdel Test shows that many films lack a prominent female perspective or even any female perspective at all. Women have faced issues such as these form many generations and in many situations and through different forms of mass media besides film. As discussed in Mollegaard piece of writing, comic books are also fought with a lack of strong female characters because the female characters in most comics are damsels in distress needing to be saved and those that are shown as strong and capable are also overly sexualized (Mollegaard, K. 2014).
The lack of female perspective can even be see in the classroom through historical narratives because it is not mandated by the school boards (Russell, W. , &Scheiner Fisher, C. , 2012). The female perspective is sadly lacking in many aspects of our society but test like the Bechdel Test allow ou to see the problem we face as a society and hopefully allows us to change this sad fact.
