Fandom Approved, Bechdel Tested

Welcome to my new blog where I will be watching (well, rewatching in most cases) everyone’s favorite T.V. shows and subjecting each episode to the Bechdel Test – three simple questions created by Alison Bechdel (from an idea by Liz Wallace) in her comic “Dykes to Watch Out For” to test the representation of women in movies and other media.

The mission of this blog is to provide a rating system by which potential viewers can determine how representative a work is of women, people of color, and LGBTQ individuals, and to provide a launching point for further discussion about how women, people of color, and LGBTQ individuals are represented.

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THE BECHDEL TEST

1. Are there two or more women with names and lines?

2. Do they speak to each other? *

3. Is their conversation about something other than a man?

            *Caveat for this Blog: Do they speak to each other without the contribution of a man?

If all these questions are answered “yes,” then it passes the test.

Note that this does not measure how good the work is nor how feminist it is nor how well rounded women are in the work.  It only measures whether there is some representation of women and whether it has one aspect of quality representation, i.e. that the women have something, anything in their onscreen lives other than their relationships with men.

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DEFINING TERMS OF GENDER (for the purposes of this blog)

Woman: anyone who identifies as a woman regardless of her sexual organs *

Man: anyone who identifies as a man regardless of his sexual organs *

            *This means, therefore, that cis- and trans- individuals are counted equally when I use the terms “woman” and “man” or the related gendered nouns and pronouns.  If it is necessary to distinguish that a character is cis- or trans-, the prefixes will always be used.

Agender, Genderqueer, and Genderfluid: anyone who does not identify with any gender, anyone who identifies with multiple genders simultaneously, and anyone who identifies with different genders at different times, respectively.

Gender Unspecified: anyone who cannot determine their own gender, i.e. infants and toddlers.  This term may also be applied to a character whose gender is officially obscured, regardless of popular opinion.  See below in “Alien and Fantastical Creatures” for more.

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ALIEN AND FANTASTICAL CREATURES

Because many shows I am watching for this are sci-fi/fantasy, in order to deal with the possible myriad of aliens and fantasy races, I will have to make decisions about whether or not to include such characters within the parameters of the above gender identities, as they are very unlikely to out-right do it themselves.

For the purposes of this blog, if the alien or creature presents a human or closely humanoid form, regardless of original/natural/biological form, its gender will be considered whichever the cis-gender for the presented binary-sex would be.  UNLESS there is reason for the audience to believe the alien or creature is deliberately concealing their gender, or to believe the alien or creature took the form without any consideration of sex or gender, or to believe the alien or creature may have a specific gender but not one analogous to any human genders, then they will be considered Gender Unspecified. 

If the alien of creature does not have a form that resembles a human form closely enough for the above to be applicable, gender will be determined via context clues such as gendered pronouns or nouns (he, she, brother, sister, etc) as applied to the character and, when applicable, the gender of the (voice) actor.  If these context clues are not present or not sufficient in determining gender, the alien or creature will be considered Gender Unspecified.

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REVIEW FORMAT

For each episode I will begin by answering the first question (Are there two or more women?) by listing each woman in the episode’s cast of characters.

Then, one by one, I will present the conversations these women have with each other and rate each on a scale of zero to two. 

A zero would mean that the test failed, they don’t converse or the conversation is about a man.  A two would mean that the test past, they have a conversation about something other than a man.  A one will be given if, for example, the women conversing do not share a physical space, there is a man present though not contributing to the conversation, or a man is mentioned in a longer conversation that is not about him.  The scores for each conversation will then be tallied for the episode total.  Over time, each episodes total will be tallied for the season/series total, and then again for the show/program total.

At the end of each review, I will try to include a “For Further Discussion” section, which may or may not contain spoilers for more than just the episode (these will be marked and hidden), to bring up deeper (mostly) feminist issues or topics raised by the episode or series.

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MODIFIED BECHDEL AND BONUS POINTS

In an effort to catalogue and rate representation in popular T.V. shows, I will be using a modified version of the Bechdel Test to rate the representation of people of color (PoC) and LGBTQ individuals.

Modified Bechdel 1:

1. Are there two or more PoC with names?

2. Do they speak to each other? *

3. Is their conversation about something other than a straight white cis-man (SWCM)?

            Caveat: without the presence of a white individual

One point will be awarded to the episode for each conversation that passes the test.  Two points will be awarded for each conversation that passes with contribution from a woman of color (WoC).  Three points will be awarded for each conversation that passes and is between only WoC.

Modified Bechdel 2:

1. Are there two or more verified/out LGBTQ individuals?

2. Do they speak to each other? *

3. Is their conversation about something other than a SWCM?

            *Caveat: without the presence of a straight individual

One point will be awarded to the episode for each conversation that passes the test.  Two points will be awarded for each conversation that passes with contribution from an LGBTQ individual who is not a gay white cis-man (GWCM).  Three points will be awarded for each conversation that passes and is between only LGBTQ individuals who are not GWCM.

Negative Bonus:
For everything instance of on-screen violence against women (including physical and psychological/emotional/verbal violence), one point will be subtracted from the episode's score.  Two points will be subtracted if it is needlessly graphic.  And three points will be subtracted if it is glamorized, romanticized, or eroticized.