Swedish cinemas adding Bechdel test ratings to promote gender equality in movies
In 1985, author and cartoonist Alison Bechdel wrote a comic strip that established her “Rule” for watching movies– it must have more than 2 named female characters and these characters must have a conversation at some point in the film about something other than men. It sounds like a pretty easy standard, but about 90% of the films now and ever would fail– all of the Star Wars movies, all of the Lord of the Rings movies, all but one Harry Potter movie, Pulp Fiction and almost every superhero action movie, unless you count the ones with the last minute girl-on-girl shit talking beat-up scene as conversation.
Now many movie theaters in Sweden have decided to use this simple test to highlight gender inequality in film, by giving a movie an A rating if it passes, a failing mark if it doesn’t. So that leaves… The Hunger Games… Bridesmaids… Carrie… ummmm… Steel Magnolias. I think that’s about it. No, Black Swan. There was some cunning linguistics in that one.
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