Bechdel Test

Bechdel Test

In 1985, cartoonist Alison Bechdel promoted an idea in the strip “The Rule”: women on screen ought to express their real feelings about all aspects of their lives without focusing on men. Today known as “the Bechdel Test”, this became a measure to see if women are fairly represented in a film.

Passing or failing the test is not necessarily indicative of how well women* are represented in any specific work. Rather, the test is used as an indicator for the active presence of women* in the entire field of film and other fiction, and to call attention to gender inequality in fiction. Media industry studies indicate that films that pass the test perform better financially than those that do not.

Films must meet these three criteria:

  • It must have at least two female* characters.
  • They must both have names.
  • They must talk to each other about something other than a man*