Was anyone that’s commenting really paying any attention at all. It’s just that a lot of popular films don’t have women in them at all or they have conversations about nothing. Some wouldn’t make sense to have women, but others it’s just that they don’t bother to write complex female characters. People like to see films that they can relate to and sometimes that means seeing your gender as something other that a blithering idiot or not at all. It’s not just men that go to the movies.

I’m calling whiny-lesbian-nazi-feminist bullshit on this one.  Do you honestly think men go out of their ways to misrepresent women in films? You’re giving us too much credit. Unless its an action/fantasy/porn films the only movies we’d go to see are with our missus, who want to watch romantic comedies. Aimed at females. Females that talk about men, because the other 99% of women who aren’t roid-raging psycho feminist like that shit. If you don’t like it, go make some movies that you like and watch them, but for Christ’s sake stop fucking complaining. Honestly nobody but you gives a shit. Its not a representation of how fucked up this patriarchal society we live in is, its just human nature. I apologise for the aggressive nature rant, I’m drunk from drinking Cosmos with my wife, who’s glued to the telly watching Sex and the City episodes. A show about a bunch of ugly over the hill skanks talking non stop about men. Viva la revolución!

There was a quote once from Seth McFarlane talking about how the character Meg was a one-sided joke because he, and most writers, had no clue what was going on inside teenage girls heads. In a larger sense, this cluelessness is what creates the Bechdel effect: most screenwriters and directors have no clue what a woman is thinking at any given point. Therefore, the idea of two women talking for a period of time greater than 1 minute about anything other than a man is inconceivable. Obviously this does not mean that a movie can’t be good if it doesn’t adhere to this standard, but it’s used to highlight the lack of female voices in cinema.

This barely deserves a response, the argument is weak. Add one more rule to counter the lack of female “involvement”. Does the movie have an attractive male lead that women would go to see in a movie? Case Closed.

who…. fucking…. cares…..

i hear they’re making another Sex and the City movie. Happy now luv?

The counter is true about books- books are never about men, they are always about women. I think it’s largely to do with who is spending money on either product.

Yo, Lord of the Rings, this is a great movie about friendship and good vs evil, and I’ma let you finish, but you forgot to toss in some random women who are otherwise irrelevant to the plot to talk about something other than men so feminists wouldn’t get needlessly angry about the “systemic problem of movies being written for and catered to men” that has plagued Hollywood for all time. FOR ALL TIME.

This is very interesting—it does, cosmetically, point to a narrative trend-namely, the restriction of integral female involvement in the story
And that’s not cool, quite honestly—it’s rough, I’d imagine, to be almost entirely without representation in a major form of entertainment; however, some narratives would ring quite false if there were two or more female characters talking to one another about something besides, let’s say, the other characters in the film (who may or may not be men)
As others have pointed out, a film like The Shawshank Redemption takes place in an all-male setting, and its having been used as a testing pond for this particular strip of Litmus feels, y’know, forced
The other thing to consider, I think, is that the representation of male dominance in the workplace and in most seats of power is, unfortunately, quite realistic—that is not to say that art should not inform reality, but when representing that which is (instead of that which we would very much like it to be), storytellers have to tread a fine line—it would similarly ring false to change the religion, race, or even height and weight of characters surrounding archetypal heroes like Batman or Superman to fulfill the laws of the Bechdelian model, because these characters are established—changing Harvey Dent to Harriet Dent, or adding more female high-ranking Gotham Police officers in The Dark Knight would not only enrage fans, but mystify the rest with a sense of forced equality
I would love to watch a film with proactive female leads, who converse with one other about anything and everything but what some dude is on about—just give me a story in which that circumstance can arise, and make sense (which is absolutely possible, plausible), and I’m in
There is, in closing, an agenda herein represented which perhaps needs a few additional rules to cement it’s legitimacy in focusing its looking glass
I propose a two-rule addendum to the existing 3:
Criterion #4: Any film which depicts the world of politics, law enforcement, military or sport (a gender-specific environment) is treated with partial exemption
Criterion #5: Any film which realizes pre-existing material, licensed from other media and thusly immutable, is partially or wholly exempt from this review
—-
Any thoughts

It seems to me that the story is more important that this arbitrary way of measuring something. We could find some strange way to discount anything by making up such a system.

Its sad how few movies pass this test but its important to note that its not only movies. Many of the movies shown on the video were based off novels (Fight Club, Lord of the Rings, etc.) comic (Hellboy, Batman etc.) or other sources. So its not only film that has this sexist complex. Society needs to work on catering to females with media that is not bubbly and water downed. As a girl I personally like the more “male oriented” films because the tend to frankly be better than the “Chick Flicks” but when I was younger I felt as if I had to try to identify with people of my sex in films. Unlike many of the characters I didn’t think only of guys. It really became had to identify with movie characters.

There’s bias in the world. It’s crazy to get your panties in a bunch just because someone points it out to you. This video isn’t accusing men of hating women. It’s an illustration of the fact that, in mainstream movies, half the population is excluded from being anything more than a love interest or sassy foil to the men in the movie.  The bias is there. Whether you think it’s a *problem* or whether you think there’s a *solution* is a matter of opinion, but at least be open enough to recognize that it’s an issue.

Bourne Supremacy…Joan Allen to Julia Childs, many conversations.
Princess Bride?…”the king’s WHORE!”
Shawshank Redemption? Really? They let girls into men’s prisons?…
Lord of the Rings?! Grandma ran the entire elf show. Awren is the one who got Frodo to the safety of Rivendell!
The Truman Show?
Toy Story…sorry to have to be the one to tell you this…there are NO people in the main action, eh?
Back to the Future part two…Mom talked to the kids … Let’s look at the other side, shall we?
Steel Magnolias, Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood, Beguilled, Holiday, Home for the Holidays, A Simple Twist of Fate, Abyss, Beyond Therapy, Field of Dreams (“Beulah, you nazi cow!”) Dune, Children of Dune, Noises Off, Isn’t She Great, Birdcage, Corinna Corinna, Gone With the Wind, Ladykillers, L.A. Story….
Lady…the Bechdel Test is only to see how long and stiff the stick up your butt is…
Cannery Row, White Christmas, Razor’s Edge, Holiday Inn, American in Paris, Saving Face, the Women, Intolerable Cruelty, Beauty Shop, Grand Canyon…just a drop in the bucket.

Well, that’s a great theory. But closer to the truth is that Hollywood, like TV, prizes the Male 18-34 demo, thus the slant. I guess young men are easier consumer targets. Read The Fountainhead or maybe some Erma Bombeck—that should perk you right up.

If you want more movies to reflect your ideology, make them. That’s’ what Spike Lee did. Most movies are from a male perspective because men write them. I wouldn’t expect Spielberg or the Wachowski Brothers to make a movie for black people either. Just be thankful there aren’t more female characters like Summer from (500) Days of Summer actually make women look outright horrible.

And what about all those chick flicks?
I don’t think “its complicated would pass” That movie is loaded with female actors, but when they get together I think all they do is yap about men.

While she was saying whatever that was, I had a great idea - slice a krispy kreme in half and put sweet pulled pork bbq in there. Amirite, dudes?

Why the hell did she use Fight Club as an example? That’s a movie about the crisis of masculinity in today’s consumer culture world. Its not supposed to be centred around women.