How Hollywood is Shaping Up on the Feminist Front

For all the feminists out there – and those who want to see significant female presence in movies (beyond boobs and butts), this is a video that runs through the movies that were nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars and measures them for how well-represented women are in the Hollywood scene.

They use the Bechdel Test  – what initially began as a bit of a joke now really highlights the lack of a significant female presence in films. Basically it says that if a movie passes the test it must fulfill the following conditions:

1. The movie must contain at least 2 women.
2. They must have names
3. They must talk about something else other than a man.

The question I have is: if you start placing emphasis on this rule in movies, will you end up getting scenes where women speak to each other just for the sake of it? Will we end up with really contrived, politically correct movies? Or is it not too much to ask that women talk to other women in films about something other than a man for at least 60 seconds?

It’s an interesting concern about the representation of women in today’s media.

Her adaptation for the Bechdel Test to racism (and talking about something other than white people), and someone who commented about adapting it to LGBT representation (and talking about something other than sexuality) are also really interesting, highlighting issues with Hollywood’s minority representation that really shouldn’t be a problem in this day and age.

What do you guys think? Do you reckon we could come up with a Bechdel Test for geek representation in Hollywood films? Where number 3 becomes: They must talk about something other than science and technology? Or is this whole Bechdel Test thing just getting too picky about representing everybody in movies?

[Via Feminist Frequency]