*whispers* Bechdel pass. See how easy?
It is legitimately sad that so many movies don’t pass that test because it is literally this easy.
Two white women talking to each other?
#part of the problem I have with the bedchel test#it doesn’t help the representation of marginalized women#it only helps privilaged women#and really it doesn’t make a movie better#and it’s not like MCU is the best at writing women#like say frigga dying just to give loki motivation to help Jane and Thor#yeah this movie wasn’t great#gifset
Agreed. Everything we need to know about the Bechdel test and the obscene application of it is the fact that people are gushing over it in a film in which Frigga is fridged to give the two male leads manpain.
But lol, Darcy and Jane talked about a cellphone! FEMINIST WIN!!!!
That’s… kind of the point of the bechdel test, though? Passing the bechdel test doesn’t mean you’ve created a feminist masterpiece. It is literally meant to represent the bare minimum of standards for writing female characters. Even if a film passes the bechdel test, it could still contain harmful messages about women. And, as mentioned above, the bechdel test has no stipulations about the types of women a movie should have in it, so it does nothing to advocate for the representation of marginalized women.
The most common criticism of the bechdel Test is that it sets the bar too low, but that’s literally what the bechdel Test is. It’s setting the bar so low that when you realize how many movies can’t even clear that bar, it shows you just how worthless Hollywood is at writing women.
Hollywood is so bad at female characters that it typically can’t even deliver two white able-bodied neurotypical heterosexual cisgender women talking together about something other than a man.
The bechdel test can’t be used as the sole basis of judgment for a film’s feminist quality. See Pacific Rim, for example, and the bechdel-inspired Mako Mori Test. Pacific Rim does not pass the bechdel test, but it it definitely more feminist than the Simpsons/Family Guy crossover episode, which did pass.
tl;dr, the point of this gifset’s caption isn’t, “SOUND THE TRUMPETS AND TOSS THE ROSE PETALS, FOR THIS MOVIE HATH PASSED THE BECHDEL TEST!” No, the point is, “this is such a lax standard that it’s ridiculous how many movies can’t even accomplish this much.”
Quoting for emphasis: “Passing the bechdel test doesn’t mean you’ve created a feminist masterpiece. It is literally meant to represent the bare minimum of standards for writing female characters.”
