The Most Difficult Test to Pass

This test is harder than your AP Physics exam, more difficult than Advanced Chem, more strenuous than any SAT.
The Bechdel Test: a measure of gender disparity in movies.

Bechdel's original comic.

Developed by Alison Bechdel, a lesbian cartoonist whose graphic novel Fun Home has garnered many awards (and even a hit Broadway show), the Bechdel test is comprised of only three simple questions:

1. Does your film have at least two named women in it?
2. Do the women speak to one another?
3. About something other than a man?

You'd be shocked by the number of movies that don't pass. The bar is so low that filmmakers are tripping on it. 

Think of your favorite movie. Apply those question. Does it pass or does it fail?

Mine fails.

My favorite movie is, and always has been The Princess Bride. It's a wonderful film that is funny, clever, and romantic, and although it features many women who speak (including a strong female lead in its Princess Buttercup), none of them every speak to each other. 

I know it is, Vizzini. I know it.

It's . . . inconceivable! 

But Amanda, you might be thinking, The Princess Bride only has one primary female character. That's part of the story. You're being harsh.

To which I say: Maybe. But I'm justified.

Because even films about women, with multiple female characters, fail. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II fails. The Avengers (which features two of the strongest women in Marvel history, Black Widow and Maria Hill), fails. In the entirety of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, there are only three significant female characters, and none of them ever even meet (my heart breaks to type that; damn you, Tolkien). 

And that's just sci-fi. 

It's not like movies with women don't make money; in fact, a 2013 study found that films that pass the Bechdel test actually make more money than films that don't. The chart below further details that money gap.

This is not the end-all, be-all of film criticism, though. The Bechdel test isn't the only measuring stick that should be used to gauge gender disparity in movies; sometimes films scrape by with just a single scene of women chatting about something other than a man, without much real substance, when other films feature empowered women who don't speak to other women at all. But the Bechdel test is a great place to start. 

Next time you watch a movie, notice. Ask yourself, "does this movie pass?" Because really, why shouldn't it?

I mean, if Anchorman can do it, shouldn't everyone be able to?

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2013 study shows that movies that pass make more money