Brilliant Bechdel!

Well, after seeing another film a few day ago ('Lucy'), it particularly made me think about the Bechdel Test. Named after Allison Bechdel, a cartoonist who came in at number 4 in Rolling Stone's recent list of best non-superhero cartoons; someone who was interested in feminism and gender politics - and good storytelling. And I thought it was about time I did a slightly intellectual post, after the last one.

So, now you know who Ms Bechdel is, what is her test? It was a piece from her book 'Dykes To Watch Out For', and it's a simple thing to see how female friendly a piece of entertainment is; mainly applied to films, it asks 3 questions. Is there more than one named female character? Do they speak to each other? About something other than a man? Which seems simple enough. But it's amazing how many films don't match up. By the way, by 'female friendly' I don't mean whether women might enjoy it; but rather, how positive an image of women does it promote.
                                                                 

Just think for a moment about the last couple of films you saw, and ask these questions. How does it stack up? The last couple of films I saw just about pass - I say 'just about' because both of them had minimal female characters. GOTG had 3 that I remember, and Lucy had 2 - unless you count her mum, who 'appears' once in a phone call. And these are films that actually pass. Quite a lot don't. The Avengers doesn't, for instance - although there are 3 strong named female characters (only one a superhero), they don't ever speak to each other, even when they share screen time.

But as this article acknowledges, the test isn't perfect - it has flaws. At least two that I can think of. One is that it's posssible to pass with literally a couple of lines of dialogue; and the other, just the opposite. That, as The Avengers shows, it is possible to have strong female characters and still fail. And there's also the point that dialogue doesn't reflect conversation - we generally are only shown what we need to see to follow the story. Which is why pretty much all rom-coms would probably fail. It would be a pretty bad rom-com where female characters didn't talk about the male character; though it could be possible.

However, I think the main point isn't that if a film fails this test, then it's not female friendly, not promoting a positive image of women; but rather, just that so many fail. It seems a pretty simple enough test; so, why do so many fail? What does that say about society? About us? And what can be done about it?

A Political Post

Well, I've done a few things this week-for instance, my day off was quite busy-but mostly, I've been staying in. Which wasn't really planned, and was very relaxing. So, not having done that much, I thought I'd talk a bit about politics. Because a lot of other people have been talking about that recently, for one reason or another. And, also, because I saw this on a friend's facebook profile, and this pic on another's.


Which made me think a bit-and smirk. But mainly think. I definitely have opinions, as anyone who knows me well would agree, and am not afraid to share them. But I don't often do more than that. However, recently, I did. I signed a petition online a while ago, asking Dominic Mohan to take the bare boobs from The Sun. I don't often read any daily paper, but this is still something I feel to be important-so I signed the petition. And, as is often the case, didn't think much more of it, though I did read the emails they sent to keep me updated with the campaign. And recently, they asked us to support them by not shopping at certain shops for a week. They had selected several of The Sun's biggest advertisers, and  asked us not to shop there for one week, and to consider telling them why. Then they would contact them to ask them to consider stopping advertising with The Sun until Page 3 has been removed.
I had a slight advantage in doing it, in that I didn't read the message until Tuesday, so effectively 2 days of the week had already gone by-thankfully, I hadn't shopped at any of the shops that week. And when I looked at the list, there were only really 2 of the shops that I generally shopped at. However, the problem was that those were my main grocery shops, and both are within a few yards of my house. I actually live above one of them. So, the problem was not just remembering to get groceries from somewhere else; but also remembering not to just pop in when I felt like something on the offchance. Which I knew would be difficult, and I didn't know if I would manage it; but I knew that I could, if I tried. So I did. It made me think about what I bought, and to a certain extent why; and I definitely ended up buying less. And I only went to a takeaway once that I remember. So, I was reminded once again that I can do more than I often think I can-mainly if I actually think, rather than just going through life. And I wonder how much I (we) don't do simply because we don't think; and, more importantly, what we could do if/when we do think.

So, there you go-a political post that's not about politics-or at least not about voting. And to finish, I'll give you links to two other issues I feel strongly about:- marriage and peace. You may not feel strongly about either issue, and if not, you don't have to look; but I do, so I'm doing something. Only a little something, maybe, but doing something is better than doing nothing. At the very least, it keeps it in my mind.