Argo, 21 Jump Street, Social Network, This Is the End, and most Pixar productions: these top charting and award winning movies have numerous differences yet they all have one thing in common, all the films failed. They have all received a 0% on the Bechdel test and unfortunately so have the majority of box office hits.
The Bechdel test is just three simple questions to ask when viewing any type of media in order to see if it displays a gender bias. The questions are,
1) Are there women in the movie that have names?
2) Do these women talk to another women in the movie?
3) About something other then men?
I laughed when I first heard about the Bechdel test and questioned how many movies would ever fail. This humorous moment turned serious when I could name twenty films off the top of my head that did not pass this simple test, and only a couple that could. Of the top 100 movies in 2011, only eleven of them had female protagonists. If you are still skeptical about the amount of sexism displayed in Hollywood, take into consideration that only 30% of the speaking roles for the top movies of 2012 were for women according to a study from the University of California. Screenwriters are writing for males and this lack of strong female roles in the cinema is what leads to the increasing number of failures of the Bechdel test. What do these shocking statistics say about our society and how women are viewed in it?
Hollywood’s gender bias is implemented into films that children grow up with, which I believe is the beginning of the problem. Children are subtly being fed a deep-rooted gender bias when viewing movies. Learning that the common hero will almost always be a male who rescues a women, taking the Disney princess movies for example, is what I believe fuels the everyday actions of sexism we see in adulthood. With kids viewing the severe lack of women in movies, how could sexist views of power in different genders not develop? With shockingly low numbers of women as head CEO’s and in positions of power in the workforce, movies are reinforcing the sexist stereotypes that men are more powerful than women. Children need to grow up with movies where the Bechdel test is passed and a female is the central character.
Unfortunately, sexism is not bound to America’s society, but is seen as a worldwide adversity. The universal search engine, Google, is how we can view gender discrimination globally. Through the campaign the group UN women put out, ads show how sexism is as easy as a click away to find. When typing in “women should…” into the website, Google brings up the most common searches through autocomplete, suggesting to finish the sentences with the disheartening gender biased phrases displayed in the picture below.
I ask, at what point will women and men be seen as equal? What can we do as students to end the gender discrimination that is being taught to us at such a young age through Hollywood? Yes, there are numerous movies such as Brave and The Hunger Games that defy the negative statistics against women in films, but why are the majority of movies not like this? Hopefully one day the skewed outlook of females in the movie industry will change.
Globalization & the Writer 
Unfortunately, I do not think that women and men will ever be seen as equal members of society. America was founded as a country run and built by men. Women have never been given the credit that they deserve. Even when they took the place of men in factories during WWII, the small increase in the power of women ultimately did not reflect their true effort in working to maintain the country’s stability.
As a community, women can band together to show their children more positive portrayals of women in media. It is becoming increasingly hard to do that with increases in sexism in songs, movies, and other media. It is also hard to mediate what kids watch because everyone has their own cell phone or computer that they can get videos or music from. In the end, I think that simply raising children to be respectful and strong-willed is the best defense against sexism.
Contrary to what others have said, I was not surprised to learn about the results of the Bechdel test. We have grown up in a world full of fairytales, dreaming of the perfect life. And what life is portrayed as “perfect” in movies and society in general? A man and a women with two kids and a decent sized house, two cars and a few pets. However, most of the population lacks some or all of these qualifications for a “perfect life”. First of all, a large percentage of the population is poor and unable to find a job nevermind an affordable house. On top of this, with the rise in acceptance of equality in marriage, comes the rise in individuals coming out and starting families. People are becoming more accepting in society and realize that not everyone is the same but should still have the same rights. The author pointed out that there aren’t many movies starring women as the leading protagonist. However, take into account that Brave and the Hunger Games are recent movies. The world is developing and becoming more accepting every day, and we have come a long way since the time of floor-length dresses and no schooling for women. The fairytales that we refer to are from the past and have been modernized to fit society’s standards today, so who’s to say that these won’t change to highlight women? Women and same-sex couples may seem left out of the spot light in movies now, but I think that Hollywood is simply trying to catch up with the demands of our changing, accepting world.
As much as I agree with the article, I do have one point to make. One major focus of the movie industry is the love story. Whether a movie focuses on a man or woman, it is almost guaranteed that there will be some love story involved, where the main character will be forced to discuss the opposite sex. In that regard, I don’t really agree with the Bechdel Test. That being said, I took an elective in my senior year of high school on this exact topic. Women are always misrepresented, especially in television commercials. It’s an unfortunate fact that Hollywood is still run by older, white, conservative men.
As a young girl growing up watching Disney movies I always dreamed about growing up and finding my prince charming. Many old Disney movies portrayed women as being damsels in distress that needed to find a prince charming to live happily ever after. Many new Disney movies are now showing women as powerful beings. For example Wizards of Waverly place and Hannah Montana both had leading roles that were women and they were both independent characters. Many movies from Hollywood though do not always portray women as being independent strong characters. In most movies women are portrayed as sex symbols that are supposed to stand there and look nice. I think that Hollywood needs to start showing women as strong independent women that go to college or do something with their lives.
Along with everyone else, I was surprised to see how many Disney Movies failed the Bechdel Test. Disney is something most children grow up with, and it’s a huge part of what we learn from. Taking a psychological stance on this problem, I remembered something that I was taught last year. In a study called “The Bobo Doll Experiment”, psychologist, Albert Bandura, studied the behavior of children after watching an adult model act aggressively or rewardingly towards this doll. In this experiment, the child would act as the parent did towards the doll. This is a form of observational learning, which brings me back to the Bechdel Test and Disney movies. If most Disney movies fail to teach children about gender equality, then is this affecting the way we perceive it now and will it affect future generations?
On the contrary, if we didn’t even notice this before we heard about the Bechdel Test, is it that big of an issue? In my personal opinion, I think that Disney has strong women’s roles. Disney often goes with the theme of “Rags to Riches”, which I think encourages women and gives them hope to succeed in life. Though some movies do portray men to be stronger, wouldn’t that be society’s fault and not pop-culture or the media?
I actually really enjoyed this blog article because this is something that I haven’t really noticed before when watching all of these movies. I definitely agree with stanleyr that these stereotypes for women have been around for so long and I don’t really see them going away anytime soon. There have been many different feminist movements and groups to try and get rid of these issues, but I don’t believe that there will ever disappear completely. Besides the fact of sexism still being an issue, I also don’t think that the feminist and sexist jokes will ever go away. I hear them all the time in my every day life and I typically don’t ever take offense to it. Especially after reading this article it is definitely a male dominant world and I do believe that men tend to be taken more seriously in society in a lot of different ways. I think that this is a very interesting test but I’m not entirely sure how we would go about changing anything in our society.
I have noticed that Disney movies have portrayed this inequality of genders, and that still in some other movies or shows today, this is relevant. However, I do think that more recent movies being made star some strong female roles and this is demonstrating the change in times. Like anything, there will be opposing views and opinions, but I think we are taking positive steps into more equal gender roles. My grandparents have the stereotypical 60’s, husband and housewife relationship. It is obvious that my grandmother accepts her role as a caregiver. In contradiction, my parents are not like this. They have what I would say is a fair, and equal relationship. Even though my father grew up with my grandparents, he does not live the way they do. Things are changing and women are developing more equal roles, so we need to keep educating people on this matter.
Along with all of the other people who posted, I was very shocked to find out about this test, and that most movies failed it. I agree with everyone who commented about Disney movies and young girls idolizing them, but I had never realized before that they were sexist. We do not realize, but from the start we are teaching children that women are inferior to men. With that said, I do think that things are in the process of progressing and that women eventually will be equal to men. Two hit movies this year, Hunger Games, and Pitch Perfect both had woman leads in them, along with many other movies. Although pay, and job positions are not yet equal for men and women, I think that eventually they definitely will be- and from there things will begin to change in pop culture, because pop culture ultimately depicts the times we live in.
While I have never heard of the Bechdel test prior to this blog entry, I had wondered about movies and how they portray women before. As part of a research paper in my high school senior religion class, I had to examine children’s movies or shows and write about how they portray certain people. For instance, in Disney’s version of Peter Pan, made in 1953, there is an entire scene and song devoted to the Native Americans, calling them “red faces” and shows them smoking and denouncing the girl who was seductively dancing. If you need a refresher on the movie, watch the scene here. Part of the reason why these Disney movies do not have women as the lead roles or depict them in a positive light is because of the time the movie was released. Many people in the 1950s were racist not only in terms of race, but also in gender discrimination. I am not stating that it is fine to keep women stuck in traditional roles, but most of the Disney movies made around the time of Peter Pan and such were made in a time that would have viewed women in that way. Of course nowadays, there is absolutely no excuse for a movie to degrade women in their roles because rights of women have been fought for vigorously since the 1920s to the point where women have closer to equal pay. I believe it will take some time for people to treat men and women as equals because of the traditional roles that women have played. These ideas have become ingrained in our minds just because it was an idea that people grew up around. It is because of movies like Brave or the Hunger Games that have pointed Hollywood in the right direction because it recognizes the great impact women have on the world.
It is difficult to determine exactly when men and women will be seen as equal, or if that will ever be the case. I grew up with a stay-at-home mother and a working father. This lifestyle didn’t bring to my attention that I lived in a stereotypical home: a mom who cooked, cleaned, and took care of the kids, and a father that went to work every morning and came back in time for dinner. Looking back, I understand that not every family was in the same situation as me. My friends had mothers who worked just as hard as their fathers, but how did their occupations differ? It was common to hear “My dad makes more money than my mom.” That’s usually how it was, and unfortunately, I feel like it still is.
The “glass ceiling” is a term that’s used to describe how it is harder for women to reach the top of the corporate ladder because of the suspected inability of a woman to hold a higher-level job. According to an article (http://www.feminist.org/research/business/ewb_glass.html), when deciding to promote employees,”the men at the top look to former colleagues and old school ties; in both areas, women have been virtually absent.” Women aren’t even thought about as being a corporate leader. I think gender equality, especially in the workforce, is necessary especially in diversifying the workplace and bringing in new ideas.
As students today, we have the opportunity to break that glass ceiling. It’s our generation that can begin to change the gender equality due to more active participation of women in organizations and companies. We’ve come a long way within the past 10 years, and I think with more time, men and women will become more equal.
As with many of the others who read this blog entry, I was shocked when I found that many of the movies I watched growing up, and continue to watch now, don’t pass the Bechdel Test. I agree with lonatim that, perhaps we’re “programmed” to think this way. Someone else mentioned “SlutWalk” and rape, and I found an article which states that 71% of women and 57% of men blame a women for unwanted sexual encoutners in bed, while 31% of women and 23% blamed women for being raped for dressing provocatively.Why We Still Blame Victims of Rape I believe society has a long way to go before women are seen as equals to men. Here’s a list of films that fail the Bechdel Test
I agree with gargerc: if you google “women should”, things such as “know their place”, “be seen and not heard”, “not preach” come up. It’s scary that in 2013 that this is still an issue, but I believe women have gained more rights over the years.
* Hopefully my hyperlinks work.
The process of creating a cast of characters is already arbitrary. The author determines the traits of every created, including the character’s sex. Raiders of the Lost Ark failed the Bechdel Test. Indiana Jones is a character worthy of his own story brand, but if Raiders of the Lost Ark didn’t exist there would still be plenty of male action heroes. The Shawshank Redemption is an incredible film, one of my favorites, but if it didn’t exist, there would still be plenty of jailbreak movies featuring men. Let’s talk about Zero Dark Thirty, the movie about the hunt for Bin Ladin, it stares a woman, is directed by a woman, has several other important female characters and has them talk to one another, yet according to the rules of the test the film marginalizes women because no one in Zero Dark Thirty talks about anything but one specific man. If women chat about anything, it’s men, because women don’t talk about anything else.
Bechdel failures feature women talking only about the men in their lives, it’s the case in the majority of romantic comedies, superhero movies, and chick flicks. Women are referred to the role of a romantic lover or helpful sidekick or sometimes even a villain, thus making it hard to even see a reason why they would ever have to talk to each other in the first place. Especially about anything other than a man.
The fact is, Hollywood is still run by men. There aren’t any more secrets to writing a fantastic female character than there are to writing a male one. Good characters are good no matter what their gender, race, sexuality, etc.
I agree with stanleyr when she says that it was disturbing to see that it was the majority of Disney movies that didn’t pass the Bechdel test. Little girls grow up idolizing these classic Disney movies and wanting to be like the princesses when these characters are portrayed to be inferior to men. I also agree with carignanm because there seems to be more and more movies that contain strong and confident women characters. I believe that movies like The Hunger Games is breaking this female character mold and transitioning into a strong and confident female lead. I hope that this continues into the Disney movie production so that these characters are introduced to younger girls.
Along with the Bechdel test, it was very disturbing to see the google searches that would come up when you type in things like “women should” or even “women should not”. It is extremely demeaning and offensive to see the common searches that appear after typing in these things.
While I agree with brownemc and the comments, I also believe that there has been a shift, and females are becoming more prominent in movies. As bursoj states, the movie Brave breaks the common thread that Disney princesses are saved by the prince. Another Disney movie that portrays a strong and independent princess is Tangled. Many of the popular new movies that are coming out, such as the Hunger Games, also feature strong female roles. If you look at all the movies in 2013, there are more movies with strong female characters than without. The website http://bechdeltest.com lists 160 movies from 2013 and their placement after undergoing the Bechdel Test. Many superhero/ superpower movies, such as The Man of Steel, Wolverine, and Iron Man III pass the test, though the women often are less important characters. As I was saying to someone the other day, often time in literature or media female characters are granted more superpowers than male characters, as if women need more powers than men do in order to make them equal. The Avengers breaks this mold as the Black Widow does not have powers and still holds her own, but there is still a lack of female characters in the movie.
I thought the search brownecm found when typing in “women should…” was eyeopening, so I tried it. I got women should: know their place, not preach, not work, and not be in combat. For when I typed in “men should,” I received different results, and the third one really surprised me. “Men should”: not get married, always pray, wear makeup, and pay for dates. The differences is astounding, though it is odd that 3 of the google search suggestions after “men should” relate to women.
I remember about a week ago when my philosophy teacher asked the class to picture a scientist and to record our answers on a sheet of paper. Once everyone had finished describing what they thought of a scientist, it was unbelievable to me that most of the answers consisted of white males. Although women are in a much better place in society than they were centuries ago, it is no secret that there is still a lot of sexism occurring to this day. For example, someone in my FYE class today mentioned the SlutWalk, which are protest marches against the explaining and excusing of rape and in the hopes of ending rape culture. Rape culture, unfortunately, points all of the causes to the victim, almost making it seem as if the rapist was at no fault at all. Although the marches are not only taken by women, they do make up the majority. Of course, rape culture includes somewhat of an extreme of sexism, but that doesn’t mean that the sexism happening in Hollywood should be overlooked. Like brusoj said, it will probably be a long time before women and men are treated as complete equals. What I took from the activity in my philosophy class that, discrimination between genders is, at least nowadays, not an act done on purpose. I believe that, due to our history, humans have simply grown to think of men as somewhat superior figures. Fortunately, the world is constantly changing, and although men are still often seen as superior, women have definitely come a long way and will someday be treated as equals.
When I started reading this blog I had the same reaction as brownemc, I thought the Bechdel Test was laughable. The three questions seemed so simple and applicable to every movie, until I really thought about it. The depiction of female characters in these movies is shocking, and sadly reflects what is still happening in real life. It is obvious that women have made progress in their equality, but women are still considered lower in status than the male gender.
Last night I went to the McLaughlin lecture and the speaker, Joshua Green, spoke about morality and tragedy of the commons. At one point he discussed racism and how this idea of inequality is potentially ingrained in our minds and occurs unconsciously. This was tested by sending two identical resumes to an office for a job application. These resumes were identical in every way but the name, one had a stereotypical white name and one had a stereotypical black name. The white named resume was chosen over the blacked name resume almost every single time, even though the applicants were equality qualified. My reasoning for explaining this story is, what if the inequality of men and women is something that is ingrained in our minds? What if we are programmed to think this way, that it is our unconscious’s doing?
I am not saying that the inequality of women is good, I am a woman and therefore think we should be treated equally of course. I am just posing the idea that maybe it isn’t our fault? Maybe we have been programmed to think this way.
Today in Writing, I actually discussed this issue with my professor and the writer of this blog. This situation as a whole is such a problematic situation that sadly probably will never fully reach an end. Many years will have to pass before women see a glimpse of equality. Over the past hundred years or so though, women have made significant advancements in this situation. This is a problem that is not just expressed through the United States, but it is seen throughout other countries. As stated in the blog, the film and entertainment industry constantly favor men, while women are typically seen as a secondary role. Dating back to childhood years, we are told by movies especially in Disney films that the economic status of women or where we came from plays no effect. All that matters is that we are beautiful and any rich man of high status will marry us. As children growing up and watching these types of movies we are custom to grasp these behaviors as normal.
Being a female this topic is a judgmental one and affects who I am as a person. I am entering into the field of health professions and sciences and I feel that even though the number of women in sciences is increasing, the male population still dominates in this field. It is difficult in this field to receive the respect we as women deserve. I appreciate the rise of respect that women have obtained throughout the years in the typically known male dominant occupation.
Being a student who will be applying to graduate colleges upon graduation in a demanding field, I feel we should take charge in making a statement. We as students should unite together to strive for an end of this unequal distribution of recognition. If males and females are treated as equal, the world will be seen as a better place by all.
A good source of information for anyone interested to learn more about this topic is the video Miss Representation. This video was introduced to me by my professor and I personally am intrigued to watch this video.
Unfortunately, everything mentioned in this blog post is true and accurate; women have and probably will always be seen as inferior to men. Women have made significant advances over the past one hundred years but are still a far way from being equals with men. It is particularly disturbing that Disney movies promote the traditional women roles and present men as superior individuals. Children who are growing up watching these movies will quickly understand these behaviors as normal in society and will not question when men are given more power than women, especially in the work force. As a female entering into the finance and math field upon graduation, I fear that this male dominant occupation will be difficult to gain respect in. As students we should all strive to end this unequal distribution of recognition because when males and females are treated as equals, the world will be a better place. Teachers, especially those of elementary and middle school students, could promote equality and instruct younger children that men and women deserve the same rights. Power should be given to those who work hard and earn it, not those who are merely born a certain sex.
I believe that it will be many more years until women are seen as equals, if ever. There are many countries in the world today that do not treat women as equals to men under law, and even in countries such as the United States, women are not treated as equals by society. The example of the lack of female protagonists in movies and the lack of conversation they have that does not revolve around the male characters is wonderful to prove the point that women are not treated the same in any industry. The film industry and the entertainment industry constantly favors men, and in many movies, women are seen as a stereotypical, secondary role. The example of Disney Princess movies is perfect. With the exception of Brave, (and arguably Mulan), the Disney Princesses spend their days singing about finding their true love and awaiting their prince. Even in these movies where there is a female protagonist, they are focused on one thing: finding and marrying the man. Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Ariel, among others, were the princesses that our generation grew up. From childhood we told by these Disney movies that our economic status or where we came from did not matter as long as we were beautiful, then any rich man of high status would want to marry us. I am personally proud of Disney for finally creating Brave, the exception to the rule, which focuses on family and goes against the classic pattern of an either defiant or downtrodden female that is “saved” by a prince. With the messages of classic Disney princesses, as well as countless other children’s movies, being shown to children, how will this affect them? What will their preconceived notions be about gender roles and will they outgrow the them?