Bechdel for Books - A.R. Showler

Chasing Bechdel: A Quest for Books that Pass the Bechdel-Wallace Test

Imagine you’re a child again: your dad is working, and your mom does not want to be bothered, so you sit in front of the television in the playroom. You’re too young to read, so you settle in to watch Disney movies and cartoons showing faraway places and magical creatures. Thus far, your favorites are “A Journey Through Fairyland” and “The Snow Queen.”

After watching a young man save a flower fairy from her death and Gerda trade everything she holds dear (her essential identity) to find Kay, you switch to something more lighthearted: “The Swan Princess.” You own both the first and second movies and watch how Odette dies repeatedly for the man she loves. Whether he has confessed his love for the wrong woman or she’s hurling herself toward a fireball to save him, the same result: Odette dies only to be brought back by magic from her selflessness.

Now you switch to Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” or “The Little Mermaid”; again, women are seen in relation to men. If they don’t die, they trade their life, enduring mistreatment for the love of a man. They have no friends and no connections outside of their relationship. And, once married, they are defined again by the touch of a man. With all jokes aside, I absorbed these themes, like roots in a loveless drought I drank from the media river. I tried to embody these ideals. As a woman, I see the danger in these movies for both boys and girls. Expectations are a cage we force upon our children, regardless of where they come from.

Unpacking heteronormative ideas, trauma, and “womanly” ideals, I continuously return to my childhood and the themes presented by the media and my family. I suffered from a fragile ego as I inhaled misogyny and looked disdainfully at the “pick me” girl as if we didn’t suffer from the same tragedy. As I sorted through the various threads and mess that bound me, I read about the Bechdel Wallace Test.

Let’s be honest: a media test initially meant as a joke is a low bar for various forms of fiction to hurdle. With only three criteria to pass the test, you’d think more, if not all, works of fiction would pass. So why test it? To show the baseline and how many bestseller books miss the mark and completely botch the job.

What is the Bechdel-Wallace test?

A media test originally used to determine women’s representation in film, it was first noted in Alison Bechdel’s comic Dykes to Watch Out For and was developed by Alison Bechdel’s friend, Liz Wallace.

The criteria to pass the Bechdel-Wallace test include:

There must be at least two named women characters
The women characters must speak to each other
When the women speak to each other, they must talk about something other than a man.

Factors the test misses:

The quality of women’s relationships in the work
The test ignores race, sexuality, creed, class, gender identity, and disability.

Why is this test important?

Society is not a vacuum. Women’s portrayal in fiction affects not only women but men as well. Movies, books, and television shows tell men they cannot show “weak” emotions like fear, insecurity, or sadness unless shown in anger.

Men are taught to revolve their lives around material objects that may make them more desirable for a partner, like cars and money. They are told to build their identity around a woman, resulting in emotional stunting and codependent behaviors.

Further, if not more dangerous, repercussions:

Emphasizes heteronormative relationships
Fetishizes people of color [Jasmine in “Aladdin“]
Portrays a woman’s worth in relation to a man [“Cinderella“]
Encourages the idea of a “good” versus “bad” girl
Instills the notion that women are passive participants [“Sleeping Beauty“]

But are we being too critical? After all, white women weren’t given the right to vote until 1920, a little over one hundred years ago, and women of color could not vote until 1965. Are we asking too much too soon? Abso-fucking-lutely not.

What can we do about it?

Begin by recognizing the possible agendas within the media.

How does your background affect your view on said agenda?
Whose voices were left out or ignored from the media piece?
Does the media support specific stereotypes or a particular set of values?
What are the motives behind the message?

Other Equally (if not more) Important Tests:

The POC!Bechdel Test

The POC! Bechdel test grades whether the media piece represents people of color. To meet the criteria, the movie/book/TV show must:

Have two named people/characters of color
The surfaces must talk to each other
About something other than a white person.

The Native Bechdel Test

This test measures Indigenous representation in the media, not the whitewashed idea of “native.” The criteria for this test are:

Have two named Indigenous characters
The characters must hold a conversation
Then, the conversation cannot be about a white person

The DuVernay Test

Named after the director Ava DuVernay and developed by Manohla Dargis, this test measures the representation of people of color in films, books, television shows, etc. The character(s) of color must have their own identity, not in relation to white characters. Similar to the POC! Bechdel Test, the DuVernay test has three criteria:

The people of color must have names.
They must have a dialogue with each other, not about the white character.
If only two characters of color exist, they must not be romantically involved but act as two independent units with well-developed identities.

The Mako Mori Test

Inspired by the character Mako Mori from Pacific Rim, the test determines the quality of a character’s narrative arc. The criteria to meet are more detailed than the Bechdel-Wallace test.

Criteria:

Does the movie/book/TV show have at least one female character?
Does the character have an independent arc? Does she have ambitions? Goals? Is there character development?
Is her story independent from other men’s stories?

The Raleigh Becket Test

Recognizing the damage of stereotypes on men is just as important as identifying the damage done to women. Here’s a test for the men out there:

A central man’s character whose narrative arc requires the development of a woman’s character
The man never becomes romantically or sexually involved with the woman’s character.

Why is this important? Think of Ken. Yes, Barbie’s Ken. He revolved his entire life around Barbie. Think of how much happier he would’ve been if he thought about himself (as a human, as a person) more than Barbie. If he developed himself as an individual rather than a person in relation to another person, then there might’ve been no need for the movie or feminism.

The Vito Russo Test

Named after the author of Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies and developed by GLAAD Media Institute, the criteria for the test are as follows:

At least one character identifies as gay, lesbian, bisexual, and/or transgender.
The character is not only defined based on their gender identity and/or sexuality
The character contributes to the plot

The Ritz Test

Developed by Sadia Habib and Shad Choudry and named after actor Riz Ahmed, this test looks at the representation of Muslim characters in media. Violation of the below criteria leads to the failure of the media piece in this test. If the movie/book/media portrays a character who is identifiably Muslim, is the character:

A victim or perpetrator of terrorism
Irrationally angry
Superstitious or culturally backwards
A threat to a Western way of life
if the character is a man, is he presented as misogynistic or oppressive?

The Sexy Lamp Test

Kelly Sue DeConnick developed a test to determine whether the character is flat or one-dimensional. To test: remove a character from the plot and replace her with a lamp; if the plot still works, the character is comparable to an inanimate object. The main character is typically a man, and the “sexy lamp” is a woman. If you claim it’s not sexist, then it’s just bad writing.

Why is any of this important?

Think of most “mainstream” books. Think of the books that are often made into television shows. Who are they written by? How many people of color are portrayed or, to take a step further, are main characters in the book? What Disney movie was just released only to receive intense white lash?

We deserve positive change.

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