# Movies: The Bechdel Test

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-the-bechdel-test/690484>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [June 10, 2014, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-the-bechdel-test/690484 "2014-06-10T16:22:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2014, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-the-bechdel-test/690484/61 "2014-06-12T10:32:45Z")

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> [@Kimstu](#):
>
> Like I said, I don’t think the absence of at least two fully developed female characters necessarily makes a movie bad, but it does mean that it might not be so easy just to “throw in” a Bechdel-qualifying scene without coming across a bit odd.

It doesn’t necessarily follow that a film that fails Bechdel doesn’t have two fully developed female characters; they just may not have a scene together. Also the requirement of “not about a man” is open to interpretation.

I agree with others that it’s a nice rule for making a general point, but there are lots of films that fail the test and nonetheless present a positive view of women.

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**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2014, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-the-bechdel-test/690484/62 "2014-06-12T13:09:26Z")

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> [@Mijin](#):
>
> It doesn’t necessarily follow that a film that fails Bechdel doesn’t have two fully developed female characters; they just may not have a scene together. Also the requirement of “not about a man” is open to interpretation.
> 
> I agree with others that it’s a nice rule for making a general point, but there are lots of films that fail the test and nonetheless present a positive view of women.

Heh, _Gravity_. 😉 No two named female characters talk …

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**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2014, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-the-bechdel-test/690484/63 "2014-06-18T03:20:20Z")

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> [@Ellen\_Cherry](#):
>
> [Here’s a list](http://bechdeltest.com/?list=all) of the movies that pass. …
> 
> But, as Zsofia (and most of you) points out, it’s not about evaluating individual movies, it’s about becoming aware of how women are portrayed overall.

I constructed a dataset from 1936 to now from the webpage. (N\>=10, each year). It’s noisy, though the fluctuations decline as the number of movies per year increases.

My 2 series were “Share of movies listed with less than 2 women” and “Share of movies that pass the Bechdel test”. To deal with the noise, I added a 5 year centered moving average. Here’s the 3 part chart:  
[http://wm40.inbox.com/thumbs/7d\_130b41\_d2595\_oP.png.thumb](http://wm40.inbox.com/thumbs/7d_130b41_d2595_oP.png.thumb)

There appear to have been pro-Bechdel fads in the early part of the era. But methinks the first _sustained_ tendency towards more female inclusive films was from 1980-1986. The 1990s also showed some positive trends. We’re now somewhere north of 60%, which isn’t especially high.

Here are the mean shares by decade:

```auto

. tabstat LT2women passBechdel, by(decade)

Summary statistics: mean
  by categories of: decade 

  decade | <2 women pass Bechdel
---------+-------------------------
    1930 | .117 .383
    1940 | .165 .462
    1950 | .131 .445
    1960 | .179 .465
    1970 | .106 .464
    1980 | .113 .543
    1990 | .089 .585
    2000 | .078 .618
    2010 | .071 .611
---------+-------------------------
   Total | .119396 .5116288
-----------------------------------

```

So we’ve moved from something like 45% to 60%.

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