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== Variants == |
== Variants == |
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* Race: |
* Race: |
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** [[Latoya Peterson]] has some drafts of a race version of the Bechdel test: [http://www.racialicious.com/2008/11/12/is-there-a-bechdel-test-for-race/#comment-1065430 racialicious.com] |
** [[Latoya Peterson]] has some drafts of a race version of the Bechdel test: [http://www.racialicious.com/2008/11/12/is-there-a-bechdel-test-for-race/#comment-1065430 racialicious.com] |
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** [[Alaya Dawn Johnson]] posted the literal race version of the test and applied it to science fiction at [http://theangryblackwoman.com/2009/09/01/the-bechdel-test-and-race-in-popular-fiction/ The Angry Black Woman] |
** [[Alaya Dawn Johnson]] posted the literal race version of the test and applied it to science fiction at [http://theangryblackwoman.com/2009/09/01/the-bechdel-test-and-race-in-popular-fiction/ The Angry Black Woman] |
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Revision as of 13:48, 20 December 2012
The Bechdel test or Bechdel/Wallace test was developed by Liz Wallace and became widely known after Alison Bechdel featured it in her comic Dykes to Watch Out For.
The Bechdel test is a test of female characterisation in movies. Passing the Bechdel test requires that:
- the movie [media] has at least two women characters;
- who talk to each other;
- about something other than a man.
Passing or failing the test is not an ironclad guarantee of well-rounded, feminist, characterisation but it is indicative of the problems of token women characters. A vast amount of geeky media fails the test.
Applications
The test has been applied to various media:
- tigtog applied it to a list of the “Most Significant SF & Fantasy Books of the Last 50 Years”, with few books meeting the full criteria at Larvatus Prodeo
Variants
- Race:
- TV Tropes has the Deggans Rule
- Latoya Peterson has some drafts of a race version of the Bechdel test: racialicious.com
- Alaya Dawn Johnson posted the literal race version of the test and applied it to science fiction at The Angry Black Woman
- Ars Marginal posted a version that required: "a movie must have: at least one named character of color, whose primary trait is not their race, who does something important besides help a White person." [1]
- Lauredhel made a variant for children's toys, regarding whether there were two girls depicted in an advertisement and whether they were playing at being stereotypical women or not at Hoyden About Town
- Randall Munroe analyzed how many popular recent films had two female leads. Fugitivus analyzed the response to his post.
External links
- DTWOF: The Blog: The Rule explaining the history of the rule and displaying the original comic.
- Dykes to Watch Out For on Wikipedia
- http://bechdeltest.com/