Bechdel test#LGBTQ+ people

In a 1929 essay A Room of One's Own, Virginia Woolf wrote about the one-dimensional portrayal of women in contemporary fiction:{{cite news|title=Bechdel-Test: Frauen spielen keine Rolle|url=http://kurier.at/kultur/4506969-bechdel-test-frauen-spielen-keine-rolle.php|access-date=19 August 2012|newspaper=Kurier|date=8 August 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120815181554/http://kurier.at/kultur/4506969-bechdel-test-frauen-spielen-keine-rolle.php|archive-date=2012-08-15|url-status=live}}

{{blockquote|All these relationships between women, I thought, rapidly recalling the splendid gallery of fictitious women, are too simple. ... And I tried to remember any case in the course of my reading where two women are represented as friends. ... They are now and then mothers and daughters. But almost without exception they are shown in their relation to men. It was strange to think that all the great women of fiction were, until Jane Austen's day, not only seen by the other sex, but seen only in relation to the other sex. And how small a part of a woman's life is that ...{{Cite book|last=Woolf|first=Virginia|author-link=Virginia Woolf|title=A Room of One's Own|url=https://gutenberg.ca/ebooks/woolfv-aroomofonesown/woolfv-aroomofonesown-00-h.html|chapter=Chapter V|chapter-url=https://gutenberg.ca/ebooks/woolfv-aroomofonesown/woolfv-aroomofonesown-00-h.html#chapter05|via=Project Gutenberg|date=1929|publisher=Hogarth Press}}}}

File:Female and male characters in film.png

In film, a study of gender portrayals in 855 of the most financially successful U.S. films from 1950 to 2006 showed that there were, on average, two male characters for each female character, a ratio that remained stable over time. Women were twice as likely as men to be involved in sexual activity, and this only continued to increase over time.{{Cite journal | last1 = Bleakley | first1 = A. | last2 = Jamieson | first2 = P. E. | last3 = Romer | first3 = D. | doi = 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2012.02.006 | title = Trends of Sexual and Violent Content by Gender in Top-Grossing U.S. Films, 1950–2006 | journal = Journal of Adolescent Health | volume = 51 | issue = 1 | pages = 73–79 | year = 2012 | pmid = 22727080}}

According to a 2014 study by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, in 120 films made worldwide from 2010 to 2013, only 31% of named characters were female, and 23% of the films had a female protagonist or co-protagonist. 7% of directors were women.{{cite news|last1=Sakoui|first1=Anousha|last2=Magnusson|first2=Niklas|title='Hunger Games' success masks stubborn gender gap in Hollywood|url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/sns-wp-blm-news-bc-film-women22-20140922-story.html|access-date=22 September 2014|work=Chicago Tribune|date=22 September 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140924043446/http://www.chicagotribune.com/sns-wp-blm-news-bc-film-women22-20140922-story.html|archive-date=24 September 2014|url-status=dead}} With reference to: {{cite web|last1=Smith|first1=Stacy L.|last2=Pieper|first2=Katherine|title=Gender Bias Without Borders: An Investigation of Female Characters in Popular Films Across 11 Countries|url=http://seejane.org/symposiums-on-gender-in-media/gender-bias-without-borders/|website=See Jane|access-date=16 April 2016|language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160412222049/http://seejane.org/symposiums-on-gender-in-media/gender-bias-without-borders/|archive-date=2016-04-12|url-status=live}} Another study looking at the 700 top-grossing films from 2007 to 2014 found that only 30% of the speaking characters were female.{{cite web|last1=Smith|first1=Stacy L.|last2=Choueiti|first2=Marc|last3=Pieper|first3=Katherine|last4=Gillig|first4=Traci|last5=Lee|first5=Carmen|last6=Dylan|first6=DeLuca|title=Inequality in 700 Popular Films: Examining Portrayals of Gender, Race, & LGBT Status from 2007 to 2014|url=http://annenberg.usc.edu/pages/~/media/MDSCI/Inequality%20in%20700%20Popular%20Films%208215%20Final%20for%20Posting.ashx|publisher=USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism|access-date=6 August 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150808001542/http://annenberg.usc.edu/pages/~/media/MDSCI/Inequality%20in%20700%20Popular%20Films%208215%20Final%20for%20Posting.ashx|archive-date=2015-08-08|url-status=live}} In a 2016 analysis of screenplays of 2,005 commercially successful films, Hanah Anderson and Matt Daniels found that in 82% of the films, men had two of the top three speaking roles, while a woman had the most dialogue in only 22% of films.{{cite news|last1=Swanson|first1=Ana|title=The problem with almost all movies|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/04/12/the-problem-with-almost-all-movies/|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=12 April 2016|language=en-US|access-date=2016-04-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160602200217/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/04/12/the-problem-with-almost-all-movies/|archive-date=2016-06-02|url-status=live}} With reference to: {{cite web|last1=Anderson|first1=Hanah|last2=Daniels|first2=Matt|title=The Largest Analysis of Film Dialogue by Gender, Ever|url=http://polygraph.cool/films/|website=Polygraph|language=en-US|access-date=2016-04-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160416234733/http://polygraph.cool/films/|archive-date=2016-04-16|url-status=live}}

File:Dykes to Watch Out For (Bechdel test origin).jpg explains the rules that later came to be known as the Bechdel test (1985).]]

The rules now known as the Bechdel test first appeared in 1986, in Alison Bechdel's comic strip, Dykes to Watch Out For. In a strip titled "The Rule", two women, who resemble the future characters Lois and Ginger, discuss seeing a film and one woman explains that she only goes to a movie if it satisfies the following requirements:

• The movie has to have at least two women in it,
• who talk to each other,
• about something other than a man.Bechdel, Allison. Dykes to Watch Out For. Firebrand Books (October 1, 1986). {{ISBN|978-0932379177}}{{Cite web |url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/zizyphus/34585797/in/photostream/ |title='The Rule' comic page posted on Alison Bechdel's online photostream |date=August 16, 2005 |access-date=2015-05-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150606200112/https://www.flickr.com/photos/zizyphus/34585797/in/photostream/ |archive-date=2015-06-06 |url-status=live }}{{cite web|url=https://alisonbechdel.blogspot.com/2005/08/rule.html|title=The Rule|author=Alison Bechdel|date=August 16, 2005|publisher=DTWOF: The Blog|access-date=16 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180917034327/https://alisonbechdel.blogspot.com/2005/08/rule.html|archive-date=2018-09-17|url-status=live}}

The other woman acknowledges that the idea is pretty strict, but good. Not finding any films that meet their requirements, they go home together.{{cite book|last1=Martindale|first1=Kathleen|title=Un/Popular Culture: Lesbian Writing After the Sex Wars|date=1997|publisher=State Univ. of New York Press|location=Albany, NY|isbn=978-0791432891|page=69|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UO8kUNqHhgQC&pg=PA69}} The context of the strip may have referred to alienation of queer women in film and entertainment, where the only possible way for a queer woman to imagine any of the characters in any film may also be queer was if they satisfied the requirements of the test,{{Cite web|title=The Bechdel Test Is And Always Has Been Queer|url=https://www.intomore.com/culture/the-bechdel-test-is-and-always-has-been-queer|access-date=2020-12-11|website=www.intomore.com|date=December 22, 2017 }} but it has wider feminist implications, pointing out that women in movies are rarely seen outside of their relationship to men.

The test has also been referred to as the "Bechdel–Wallace test" (which Bechdel herself prefers),On the Fresh Air program on NPR on August 17, 2015, in response to a question from host Terry Gross, Bechdel said she would prefer the test be referred to as the "Bechdel–Wallace test". the "Bechdel rule", "Bechdel's law", or the "Mo movie measure". Bechdel credited the idea for the test to a friend and karate training partner, Liz Wallace, whose name appears in the marquee of the strip.{{cite web | title=The 'Bechdel Rule,' Defining Pop-Culture Character|last=Ulaby|first=Neda|author-link=Neda Ulaby| publisher=NPR | date=2 September 2008 | url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94202522 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180522105156/https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94202522 | archive-date=22 May 2018 | url-status=live | access-date=2 July 2023}}{{Cite magazine |last1=Friend |first1=Tad |author-link=Tad Friend |date=11 April 2011 |title=Funny Like a Guy: Anna Faris and Hollywood's woman problem |magazine=The New Yorker |page=55 |url=http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/04/11/110411fa_fact_friend |access-date=2011-09-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140701095828/http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/04/11/110411fa_fact_friend |archive-date=2014-07-01 |url-status=live }} She later wrote that she was pretty certain that Wallace was inspired by Woolf's A Room of One's Own.[http://dykestowatchoutfor.com/testy Bechdel, Allison. "Testy". Alison Bechdel blog. Posted November 8, 2013] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150404002314/http://dykestowatchoutfor.com/testy |date=2015-04-04 }}.

Several variants of the test have been proposed—for example, that the two women must be named characters, or that there must be at least a total of 60 seconds of conversation.{{cite web |url=http://www.feministfrequency.com/2012/02/the-2012-oscars-and-the-bechdel-test/ |title=The Oscars and the Bechdel Test |publisher=Feminist Frequency |date=February 15, 2012 |access-date=2013-11-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131107220345/http://www.feministfrequency.com/2012/02/the-2012-oscars-and-the-bechdel-test/ |archive-date=2013-11-07 |url-status=live }} The test has also attracted academic interest from a computational analysis approach.{{Cite web |url=https://aclanthology.org/N15-1084.pdf |title=Key Female Characters in Film Have More to Talk About Besides Men: Automating the Bechdel Test. |access-date=2015-06-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150621062146/http://aclweb.org/anthology/N/N15/N15-1084.pdf |archive-date=2015-06-21 |url-status=live }} In June 2018, the term "Bechdel test" was added to the Oxford English Dictionary.{{cite news |last1=Suh |first1=Haley |title=Words To Know By Now: Binge-Watching, Bechdel Test Added To Oxford English Dictionary |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/haleysuh/2018/06/15/words-to-know-by-now-binge-watching-bechdel-test-added-to-oxford-english-dictionary |access-date=20 June 2018 |work=Forbes |date=15 June 2018 |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180620125214/https://www.forbes.com/sites/haleysuh/2018/06/15/words-to-know-by-now-binge-watching-bechdel-test-added-to-oxford-english-dictionary |archive-date=2018-06-20 |url-status=live }}

According to Neda Ulaby, the test resonates because "it articulates something often missing in popular culture: not the number of women we see on screen, but the depth of their stories, and the range of their concerns". Dean Spade and Craig Willse described the test as a "commentary on how media representations enforce harmful gender norms" by depicting women's relationships to men more than any other relationships, and women's lives as important only insofar as they relate to men.{{cite book|first1=Dean |last1=Spade|first2=Craig |last2=Willse|editor-last=Hawkesworth|editor-first=Mary|title=The Oxford Handbook of Feminist Theory|date=2016|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199328581|page=556}}

The test moved into mainstream criticism in the 2010s and has been described as "the standard by which feminist critics judge television, movies, books, and other media".{{cite book|last=Steiger|first=Kay|editor-first=James|editor-last=Lowder|title=Triumph of The Walking Dead|chapter=No Clean Slate: Unshakeable race and gender politics in The Walking Dead|year=2011|publisher=BenBella Books|isbn=9781936661138|page=[https://archive.org/details/triumphofwalking0000unse/page/104 104]|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lz3fp1fVw90C&pg=PA104|access-date=2014-04-20|url=https://archive.org/details/triumphofwalking0000unse/page/104}} In 2013, Internet culture website The Daily Dot described it as "almost a household phrase, common shorthand to capture whether a film is woman-friendly".{{cite news|last=Romano|first=Aja|title=The Mako Mori Test: 'Pacific Rim' inspires a Bechdel Test alternative|url=http://www.dailydot.com/fandom/mako-mori-test-bechdel-pacific-rim/|access-date=15 September 2013|newspaper=The Daily Dot|date=18 August 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150428043656/http://www.dailydot.com/fandom/mako-mori-test-bechdel-pacific-rim/|archive-date=2015-04-28|url-status=live}} The failure of major Hollywood productions to pass the test, such as Pacific Rim (2013), was addressed in-depth in the media.{{cite news|last=McGuinness|first=Ross|title=The Bechdel test and why Hollywood is a man's, man's, man's world|url=http://metro.co.uk/2013/07/18/movie-lovers-hit-back-at-hollywood-misogyny-with-the-bechdel-test-3886103/|access-date=15 September 2013|newspaper=Metro|date=18 July 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150317020248/http://metro.co.uk/2013/07/18/movie-lovers-hit-back-at-hollywood-misogyny-with-the-bechdel-test-3886103/|archive-date=2015-03-17|url-status=live}}

In 2013, four Swedish cinemas and the Scandinavian cable television channel Viasat Film incorporated the Bechdel test into some of their ratings, a move supported by the Swedish Film Institute.{{cite news |agency=Associated Press |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/06/swedish-cinemas-bechdel-test-films-gender-bias |title=Swedish cinemas take aim at gender bias with Bechdel test rating |work=The Guardian |date=November 6, 2013 |access-date=2013-11-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140328035633/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/06/swedish-cinemas-bechdel-test-films-gender-bias |archive-date=2014-03-28 |url-status=live }}

In 2014, the European cinema fund Eurimages incorporated the Bechdel test into its submission mechanism as part of an effort to collect information about gender equality in its projects. It requires "a Bechdel analysis of the script to be supplied by the script readers".{{cite web|title=Gender equality within Eurimages: current situation and scope for evolution|url=http://www.ewawomen.com/en/eurimages-news.html|website=European Women's Audiovisual Network|access-date=6 August 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150716173522/http://www.ewawomen.com/en/eurimages-news.html|archive-date=16 July 2015|url-status=dead}}

In 2018, screenwriting software developers began incorporating functions that allow writers to analyze their scripts for gender representation. Software with such functions includes Highland 2, WriterDuet and Final Draft 11.{{cite news |last1=Ryzik |first1=Melena |title=Is your script gender-balanced? The new test helping filmmakers get it right |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/film-scripts-gender-balanced-software-bechdel-test-christina-hodson-oscars-a8361336.html |access-date=20 June 2018 |work=The Independent |date=21 May 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180620133250/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/film-scripts-gender-balanced-software-bechdel-test-christina-hodson-oscars-a8361336.html |archive-date=2018-06-20 |url-status=live }}

In addition to films, the Bechdel test has been applied to other media such as television series,{{cite web | url=https://www.cultureslate.com/editorials/does-andor-pass-the-bechdel-test | title=Does 'Andor' Pass the Bechdel Test? }} video games{{cite book|last1=Gray|first1=Kishonna|title=Race, Gender, and Deviance in Xbox Live: Theoretical Perspectives from the Virtual Margins|date=2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1317521808|page=28|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xh-gBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA28}}{{cite book |last=Anthropy |first=Anna |title=Rise of the videogame zinesters: How freaks, normals, amateurs, artists, dreamers, dropouts, queers, housewives, and people like you are taking back an art form |year=2012 |publisher=Seven Stories Press |isbn=9781609803735 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nc3GRXqgPZ8C&pg=PT7 |edition=Seven Stories Press 1st |access-date=2014-04-20 }}{{cite news |last=Agnello |first=Anthony John |title=Something other than a man: 15 games that pass the Bechdel Test |url=http://gameological.com/2012/07/something-other-than-a-man-15-games-that-pass-the-bechdel-test/ |access-date=26 July 2012 |work=Gameological |date=July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120723010634/http://gameological.com/2012/07/something-other-than-a-man-15-games-that-pass-the-bechdel-test/ |archive-date=2012-07-23 |url-status=live }} and comics.{{cite news |last=Zalben |first=Alex |title=Witchblade/Red Sonja #1 Passes The Bechdel Test |url=http://geek-news.mtv.com/2012/02/22/witchbladered-sonja-1-passes-the-bechdel-test-advance-review/ |access-date=26 July 2012 |newspaper=MTV Geek! |date=22 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120515212018/http://geek-news.mtv.com/2012/02/22/witchbladered-sonja-1-passes-the-bechdel-test-advance-review/ |archive-date=2012-05-15 |url-status=dead }} In theater, British actor Beth Watson launched a "Bechdel Theatre" campaign in 2015 that aims to highlight test-passing plays.{{Cite web|author = Jo Caird|title = Does your show pass the Bechdel test? {{!}} Opinion|url = https://www.thestage.co.uk/opinion/2015/does-your-show-pass-the-bechdel-test/|website = The Stage|date = 14 October 2015|access-date = 2016-02-05|language = en-US|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160331183622/https://www.thestage.co.uk/opinion/2015/does-your-show-pass-the-bechdel-test/|archive-date = 2016-03-31|url-status = live}}

The website bechdeltest.com is a user-edited database of over 10,000 films classified by whether they pass the test, with the added requirement that the women must be named characters.{{cite web |title=Bechdel Test Movie List |url=http://bechdeltest.com |website=bechdeltest.com |access-date=4 October 2024}} {{as of|2022}}, it listed 57% of films in its database as passing all three of the test's requirements, 10% as failing one, 22% as failing two, and 11% as failing all three.{{cite web |title=Statistics |url=http://bechdeltest.com/statistics/ |work=bechdeltest.com |access-date=13 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160329132437/http://bechdeltest.com/statistics |archive-date=2016-03-29 |url-status=live }}

According to Mark Harris of Entertainment Weekly, if passing the test were mandatory, it would have jeopardized half of the 2009 Academy Award for Best Picture nominees.{{cite news |last=Harris |first=Mark |title=I Am Woman. Hear Me... Please! |url=https://ew.com/article/2010/08/06/i-am-woman-hear-me-please/ |access-date=26 July 2012 |newspaper=Entertainment Weekly |date=6 August 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120422144555/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20408121,00.html |archive-date=2012-04-22 |url-status=live }} The news website Vocativ, when subjecting the top-grossing films of 2013 to the Bechdel test, concluded that roughly half of them passed (although some dubiously) and the other half failed.{{cite news |last1= Sharma |first1= Versha |last2= Sender |first2= Hanna |title= Hollywood Movies With Strong Female Roles Make More Money |url= http://www.vocativ.com/culture/celebrity/hollywood-movies-strong-female-roles-make-money/ |access-date= 2 January 2014 |newspaper= Vocativ |date= 2 January 2014 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140307111753/http://www.vocativ.com/culture/celebrity/hollywood-movies-strong-female-roles-make-money/ |archive-date= 2014-03-07 |url-status= live }}

A 2018 BBC analysis revealed that among the 89 films that won the Academy Award for Best Picture, 44 (49%) successfully met the criteria of the Bechdel test. The study found that a higher percentage of Best Picture winners passed in the 1930s than in 2018.{{Cite web |last=Elsesser |first=Kim |title=These Stats On Oscars' Best Picture Nominees Reveal Serious Gender Bias |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimelsesser/2019/02/21/these-stats-on-oscars-best-picture-nominees-reveal-serious-gender-bias/ |access-date=2023-10-11 |website=Forbes |language=en}} A 2022 study found that 49.6% of the 1,200 most popular movies globally over the previous 40 years passed the Bechdel test.{{Cite journal |last1=Appel |first1=Markus |last2=Gnambs |first2=Timo |date=2022-09-01 |title=Women in fiction: Bechdel-Wallace Test results for the highest-grossing movies of the last four decades. |url=http://doi.apa.org/getdoi.cfm?doi=10.1037/ppm0000436 |journal=Psychology of Popular Media |language=en |volume=12 |issue=4 |pages=499–504 |doi=10.1037/ppm0000436 |issn=2689-6575 |s2cid=252023602|url-access=subscription }}

Writer Charles Stross noted that about half of the films that do pass the test only do so because the women talk about marriage or babies.{{cite book |last=Power |first=Nina |title=One-dimensional woman |year=2009 |publisher=Zero Books |isbn=978-1846942419 |pages=39 et seq |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u3gDWJEJblEC&pg=PA39 |access-date=2014-04-20 }} Works that fail the test include some that are mainly about or aimed at women, or which do feature prominent female characters. The television series Sex and the City highlights its own failure to pass the test by having one of the four female main characters ask: "How does it happen that four such smart women have nothing to talk about but boyfriends? It's like seventh grade with bank accounts!".

Films set in alternative or future worlds, such as fantasy and science fiction, are more likely to pass the Bechdel test. This may be because these genres are more likely to avoid traditional gender roles and stereotypes.

Several analyses have indicated that passing the Bechdel test is associated with a film's financial success. Vocativ{{'}}s authors found that the films from 2013 that passed the test earned a total of $4.22 billion in the United States, while those that failed earned $2.66 billion in total, leading them to conclude that a way for Hollywood to make more money might be to "put more women onscreen". A 2014 study by FiveThirtyEight based on data from about 1,615 films released from 1990 to 2013 concluded that the median budget of films that passed the test was 35% lower than that of the others. It found that the films that passed the test had about a 37 percent higher return on investment (ROI) in the United States, and an equal ROI internationally, compared to films that did not pass the test.{{cite news |newspaper= FiveThirtyEight |first= Walt |last= Hickey |title= The Dollar-And-Cents Case Against Hollywood's Exclusion of Women |date= 1 April 2014 |url= https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-dollar-and-cents-case-against-hollywoods-exclusion-of-women/ |access-date= 2014-04-08 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140408002110/http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-dollar-and-cents-case-against-hollywoods-exclusion-of-women/ |archive-date= 2014-04-08 |url-status= live }}

In 2018, the Creative Artists Agency and Shift7 analyzed revenue and budget data from the 350 top-grossing films of 2014 to 2017 in the United States. They concluded that female-led films financially outperformed other films, and that those that passed the Bechdel test (60% of the films studied) significantly outperformed the others. They noted that of films since 2012 which took in more than one billion dollars in revenue, all passed the test.{{cite web |title=Female-led films outperform at box office for 2014-2017 |url=https://shift7.com/media-research |website=Shift7 |access-date=23 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181223221208/https://shift7.com/media-research |archive-date=2018-12-23 |url-status=live }}{{cite news |last1=Desta |first1=Yohana |title=Female-Led Movies Have Outperformed Male-Led Movies for the Last Three Years |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/12/female-led-films-study |access-date=23 December 2018 |magazine=Vanity Fair |date=11 December 2018 |language=en}}

A research study from 2022 showed that production budget was negatively associated with the probability of passing the Bechdel test across 1200 movies from 1980 to 2019. However, the observed increase of films passing across years was stronger for higher budget films. Increases of movies passing the Bechdel test over the years from 1980 to 2019 were also stronger for movies with higher revenues, and higher audience evaluations (IMDb ratings).

Explanations that have been offered as to why many films fail the Bechdel test include the relative lack of gender diversity among scriptwriters and other movie professionals, also called the "celluloid ceiling": In 2012, one in six of the directors, writers, and producers behind the 100 most commercially successful movies in the United States was a woman.

Writing in the American conservative magazine National Review in 2017, film critic Kyle Smith suggested that the reason for the Bechdel test results was that, "Hollywood movies are about people on the extremes of society—cops, criminals, superheroes—[which] tend to be men." Such films, according to Smith, were more often created by men because "women's movie ideas" were mostly about relationships and "aren't commercial enough for Hollywood studios".{{cite news|last1=Smith|first1=Kyle|title=If You Like Art, Don't Take the Bechdel Test|url=http://www.nationalreview.com/article/449340/bechdel-test-feminist-litmus-test-movies-useless-political-correctness|access-date=18 July 2017|work=National Review|date=10 July 2017|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170718182407/http://www.nationalreview.com/article/449340/bechdel-test-feminist-litmus-test-movies-useless-political-correctness|archive-date=2017-07-18|url-status=live}} He considered the Bechdel test just as meaningless as a test asking whether a film contained cowboys. Smith's article provoked vigorous criticism.{{cite news|last1=Gettell|first1=Oliver|title=Conservative Film Critic Slammed for Bechdel Test Takedown|url=http://ew.com/movies/2017/07/10/kyle-smith-slammed-bechdel-test-takedown/|access-date=18 July 2017|work=EW.com|date=11 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170714035354/http://ew.com/movies/2017/07/10/kyle-smith-slammed-bechdel-test-takedown/|archive-date=2017-07-14|url-status=live}} Alessandra Maldonado and Liz Bourke wrote that Smith was wrong to contend that female authors do not write books that generate "big movie ideas", citing J. K. Rowling, Margaret Atwood, and Nnedi Okorafor, among others as counter-examples.{{cite news|last1=Maldonado|first1=Alessandra|title="National Review" mansplainer tries to take down Bechdel Test with "cowboy test"|url=http://www.salon.com/2017/07/11/national-review-bechdel-test/|access-date=18 July 2017|work=Salon|date=11 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170714144204/http://www.salon.com/2017/07/11/national-review-bechdel-test/|archive-date=2017-07-14|url-status=live}}{{cite news|last1=Bourke|first1=Liz|title=Sleeps With Monsters: Stop Erasing Women's Presence in SFF|url=http://www.tor.com/2017/07/18/sleeps-with-monsters-stop-erasing-womens-presence-in-sff/|access-date=18 July 2017|work=Tor.com|date=18 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170718191005/http://www.tor.com/2017/07/18/sleeps-with-monsters-stop-erasing-womens-presence-in-sff/|archive-date=2017-07-18|url-status=live}}

The Bechdel test only indicates whether women are present in a work of fiction to a certain degree. A work may pass the test and still contain sexist content, and a work with prominent female characters may fail the test.{{cite news |url=http://www.oudaily.com/l_and_a/arts_and_entertainment/column-bechdel-rule-still-applies-to-portrayal-of-women-in/article_d3dc6a7d-8fcb-589c-885a-649fe33db5e1.html |first=Sarah |last=Wilson |date=28 June 2012 |publisher=The Oklahoma Daily |title=Bechdel Rule still applies to portrayal of women in films |access-date=2014-04-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140822163316/http://www.oudaily.com/l_and_a/arts_and_entertainment/column-bechdel-rule-still-applies-to-portrayal-of-women-in/article_d3dc6a7d-8fcb-589c-885a-649fe33db5e1.html |archive-date=2014-08-22 |url-status=live }} A work may fail the test for reasons unrelated to gender bias, such as because its setting makes the inclusion of women unlikely (e.g., Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, set in a medieval monastery) or because it has few characters in general (e.g., Gravity, which has only two named characters).{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/womens-blog/2016/aug/20/why-the-bechdel-test-doesnt-always-work|title=Why the Bechdel test doesn't (always) work|last=Ellis|first=Samantha|date=20 August 2016|work=The Guardian}}{{cite web|last=Stross|first=Charles|title=Bechdel's Law|url=http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2008/07/bechdels_law.html|work=Charlie's Diary|date=28 July 2008|author-link=Charles Stross|access-date=26 July 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120825143125/http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2008/07/bechdels_law.html|archive-date=2012-08-25|url-status=live}} What counts as a character or as a conversation is not defined. For example, the Sir Mix-a-Lot song "Baby Got Back" has been described as passing the Bechdel test, because it begins with a valley girl saying to another "oh my god, Becky, look at her butt".[https://lifehacker.com/the-bechdel-test-and-other-media-representation-tests-1819324045 The Bechdel Test, and Other Media Representation Tests, Explained] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180418032535/https://lifehacker.com/the-bechdel-test-and-other-media-representation-tests-1819324045 |date=2018-04-18 }}, by Nick Douglas, at Lifehacker; published October 10, 2017; retrieved April 17, 2018[https://jezebel.com/this-bechdel-test-simulator-shows-how-easy-it-is-to-pre-1753250185 This Bechdel Test Simulator Shows How Easy It Is to Predict Who Makes Sexist Movies (Men)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171017232421/https://jezebel.com/this-bechdel-test-simulator-shows-how-easy-it-is-to-pre-1753250185 |date=2017-10-17 }}, by Kara Brown, at Jezebel; published January 15, 2016; retrieved April 17, 2018{{cite book|last1=Gomez Maureira |first1=M.A.|last2=Rombout|first2=L.E.|editor1-last=Chorianopoulos|editor1-first=Konstantinos|title=Entertainment Computing - ICEC 2015: 14th International Conference, ICEC 2015, Trondheim, Norway, September 29 - October 2, 2015, Proceedings|date=2015|publisher=Springer|isbn=9783319245898|page=546|chapter=Sonifying Gender Representation in Film |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vBWcCgAAQBAJ&q=%22the+sonification+process%22}}

In an attempt at a quantitative analysis of works as to whether they pass the test, at least one researcher, Faith Lawrence, noted that the results depend on how rigorously the test is applied. For example, if a man is mentioned at any point in a conversation that also covers other topics, it is not clear whether this means that the conversation meets or fails the test. Another question is how one defines the start and end of a conversation.{{cite web|last=Lawrence|first=Faith|title=SPARQLing Conversation: Automating The Bechdel–Wallace Test|url=http://nht.ecs.soton.ac.uk/2011/papers/12-flawrence.pdf|date=June 2011|work=Paper presented at the Narrative and Hypertext Workshop, Hypertext 2011|access-date=26 July 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131107051151/http://nht.ecs.soton.ac.uk/2011/papers/12-flawrence.pdf|archive-date=2013-11-07|url-status=live}}

In response to its increasing ubiquity in film criticism, the Bechdel test has been criticized for not taking into account the quality of the works it tests ("bad" films may pass it, and "good" ones fail), or as a "nefarious plot to make all movies conform to feminist dogma". According to Andi Zeisler, this criticism indicates the problem that the test's utility "has been elevated way beyond the original intention. Where Bechdel and Wallace expressed it as simply a way to point out the rote, unthinkingly normative plotlines of mainstream film, these days passing it has somehow become synonymous with 'being feminist'. It was never meant to be a measure of feminism, but rather a cultural barometer." Zeisler noted that the false assumption that a work that passes the test is "feminist" might lead to creators "gaming the system" by adding just enough women characters and dialogue to pass the test,{{cite book|title=We Were Feminists Once: From Riot Grrrl to CoverGirl¨, the Buying and Selling of a Political Movement|date=2016|publisher=PublicAffairs|isbn=9781610395892|pages=55–57}} while continuing to deny women substantial representation outside of formulaic plots. Similarly, the critic Alyssa Rosenberg expressed concern that the Bechdel test could become another "fig leaf" for the entertainment industry, who could just "slap a few lines of dialogue onto a hundred-and-forty-minute compilation of CGI explosions" to pass off the result as feminist.{{cite news |last1=Rosenberg |first1=Alyssa |title=In 2019, it's time to move beyond the Bechdel test |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2018/12/21/its-time-move-beyond-bechdel-test |access-date=11 May 2019 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=21 December 2018 |language=en}}

The Telegraph film critic Robbie Collin disapproved of the test as prizing "box-ticking and stat-hoarding over analysis and appreciation", and suggested that the focus should be on whether a given film has well-drawn female characters, rather than on whether it passes or fails the Bechdel test.{{cite news|last=Collin|first=Robbie|title=Bechdel test is damaging to the way we think about film|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/10450463/Bechdel-test-is-damaging-to-the-way-we-think-about-film.html|access-date=15 November 2013|newspaper=The Telegraph|date=15 November 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131118061927/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/10450463/Bechdel-test-is-damaging-to-the-way-we-think-about-film.html|archive-date=2013-11-18|url-status=live}} FiveThirtyEight{{'}}s writer Walt Hickey noted that the test doesn’t measure whether a film is a model of gender equality, or has well written, significant or deeply explored female characters—-but, he wrote, "it's the best test on gender equity in film we have—-and, perhaps more important ..., the only test we have data on."

The Bechdel test stirred a minor controversy in 2022 when writer Hanna Rosin invoked it in a tweet to criticize the gay romantic comedy Fire Island. Rosin's tweet was criticized for attempting to apply the test to a film about gay Asian men, a marginalized group; some noted that it was not the type of film the Bechdel Test was designed to evaluate.{{cite web |last1=Segarra |first1=Edward |title=Hanna Rosin apologizes for 'thoughtless' Twitter criticism of 'Fire Island' after going viral |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2022/06/07/hanna-rosin-apologizes-controversial-tweet-hulu-fire-island-bechdel-test/10004388002/ |website=USA Today |access-date=8 June 2022}} In response, Alison Bechdel humorously posted on Twitter that she had added a "corollary" to the test, whereby a film passes the test if it includes "two men talking to each other about the female protagonist of an Alice Munro story in a screenplay structured on a Jane Austen novel" (this being a description of the plot of Fire Island).{{cite web |last1=Bechdel |first1=Alison |title=Okay, I just added a corollary to the Bechdel test: Two men talking to each other about the female protagonist of an Alice Munro story in a screenplay structured on a Jane Austen novel = pass. #FireIsland #BechdelTest |url=https://twitter.com/AlisonBechdel/status/1534331494721900546 |website=Twitter |access-date=8 June 2022}}

==Derived tests==

The Bechdel test has inspired others, notably feminist and antiracist critics and fans, to formulate criteria for evaluating works of fiction, in part because of the Bechdel test's limitations. In interviews conducted by FiveThirtyEight, women in the film and television industry proposed many other tests that included more women, better stories, women behind the scenes, and more diversity.{{cite web|url=https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/next-bechdel/|title=Creating The Next Bechdel Test|date=December 21, 2017|publisher=FiveThirtyEight|access-date=December 22, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171221223621/https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/next-bechdel/|archive-date=2017-12-21|url-status=dead}}

File:Rinko Kikuchi Berlin 2015.jpg, pictured) inspired an alternative test for measuring female presence in fiction.]]

The "Kumbalangi Test"{{Cite web |last=Venkatesh |first=H. R. |date=2023-06-15 |title=Kumbalangi Test: Healthy Masculinity In Films Like Kumbalangi Nights |url=https://mediabuddhi.substack.com/p/kumbalangi-test-for-healthy-masculinity-in-films |access-date=2025-05-01 |website=Media Buddhi}}{{Cite web |last=Venkatesh |first=H. R. |date=2023-06-15 |title=A Test For Healthy Masculinity {{!}} BOOM |url=https://www.boomlive.in/mediabuddhi/a-test-for-healthy-masculinity-22252 |access-date=2025-05-01 |website=www.boomlive.in |language=en}} asks if a film features a man who talks to any other person about anything other than anger and vulnerability. It was proposed in an essay and named for the Malayalam language film Kumbalangi Nights.

The "reverse Bechdel test" asks whether a work features men who talk to men about something other than a woman. A 2022 study that analyzed 341 popular films of the last 40 years showed that almost all (95%) passed the reverse Bechdel test, speaking to a much stronger representation of men than women.

The Mako Mori test, formulated by Tumblr user "Chaila"{{cite news|last1=Wilson|first1=Lena|title=Pacific Rim Inspired the "Mako Mori Test." Uprising Gives the Character a Far Less Inspiring Arc.|url=https://slate.com/culture/2018/03/pacific-rim-uprisings-disappointing-treatment-of-mako-mori-spoilers.html|access-date=8 April 2018|work=Slate Magazine|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180408211147/https://slate.com/culture/2018/03/pacific-rim-uprisings-disappointing-treatment-of-mako-mori-spoilers.html|archive-date=2018-04-08|url-status=live}} and named after the only significant female character of the 2013 film Pacific Rim, asks whether a female character has a narrative arc that is not about supporting a man's story. Comic book writer Kelly Sue DeConnick proposed a "sexy lamp test": "If you can replace your female character with a sexy lamp and the story still basically works, maybe you need another draft."{{cite web|title=Kelly Sue Deconnick on the Evolution of Carol Danvers to Captain Marvel [Interview] |url=http://comicsalliance.com/kelly-sue-deconnick-captain-marvel/ |first=Laura |last=Hudson |date=March 19, 2012 |work=ComicsAlliance |access-date=April 27, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150502093329/http://comicsalliance.com/kelly-sue-deconnick-captain-marvel/ |archive-date=May 2, 2015 }}{{cite web|url=http://sequart.org/magazine/34150/the-bechdel-test-and-a-sexy-lamp-detecting-gender-bias-and-stereotypes-in-mainstream-comics/|title=The Bechdel Test and a Sexy Lamp|first=Forrest|last=Helvie|date=November 21, 2013|work=Sequart Organization|access-date=April 27, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150424073132/http://sequart.org/magazine/34150/the-bechdel-test-and-a-sexy-lamp-detecting-gender-bias-and-stereotypes-in-mainstream-comics|archive-date=2015-04-24|url-status=live}}

The "Sphinx test" by the Sphinx theater company of London asks about the interaction of women with other characters, as well as how prominently female characters feature in the action, how proactive or reactive they are, and whether they are portrayed stereotypically. It was conceived to "encourage theatremakers to think about how to write more and better roles for women", in reaction to research indicating that 37% of theater roles were written for women {{as of|2014|lc=y}}.{{cite news|last1=Snow|first1=Georgia|title=Theatre gets its own Bechdel Test|url=https://www.thestage.co.uk/news/2015/theatre-gets-its-own-bechdel-test/|access-date=6 December 2015|work=The Stage|date=30 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208064541/https://www.thestage.co.uk/news/2015/theatre-gets-its-own-bechdel-test/|archive-date=2015-12-08|url-status=live}}

Johanson analysis, developed by film critic MaryAnn Johanson, provides a method to evaluate the representation of women and girls in movies. Although developed for the screen, it can also be applied to books and other media. It consists of adding or subtracting points based on different categories of representation. The analysis evaluates media on criteria that include the basic representation of women, female agency, power and authority, the male gaze, and issues of gender and sexuality. Johanson's 2015 study compiled statistics for every film released in 2015, and all those nominated for Oscars in 2014 or 2015. She also drew conclusions about movie profitability when women are represented well.{{Cite web|last=Johanson|first=MaryAnn|date=2016-04-21|title=Where Are the Women? rating criteria explained (updated!)|url=https://www.flickfilosopher.com/2016/04/where-are-the-women-rating-criteria-explained.html|access-date=2020-07-15|website=FlickFilosopher.com|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|last=Johanson|first=MaryAnn|date=May 11, 2016|title=Where Are the Women?|url=https://www.cityweekly.net/utah/where-are-the-women/Content?oid=3284076|access-date=July 16, 2020|website=Salt Lake City Weekly}}{{Cite web|last=Merin|first=Jennifer|title=The Status of Feminist Film Criticism - A Roundup Report : Chaz's Journa[sic]: Roger Ebert|url=https://www.rogerebert.com/chazs-blog/the-status-of-feminist-film-criticism---a-roundup-report|access-date=2020-07-16|website=rogerebert.com|language=en}}

{{Anchor|Russo test}}

The "Vito Russo test" created by the LGBTQ organization GLAAD tests for the representation of LGBTQ characters in films. It asks, "does the film contain a character that is identifiably LGBT, and is not solely or predominantly defined by their sexual orientation or gender identity, as well as tied into the plot in such a way that their removal would have a significant effect?".{{cite web |title=GLAAD introduces 'Studio Responsibility Index', report on LGBT images in films released by 'Big Six' studios |url=http://www.glaad.org/releases/glaad-introduces-studio-responsibility-index-report-lgbt-images-films-released-big-six |date=August 20, 2013 |publisher=GLAAD |access-date=August 24, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150317104130/http://www.glaad.org/releases/glaad-introduces-studio-responsibility-index-report-lgbt-images-films-released-big-six |archive-date=2015-03-17 |url-status=live }}{{cite news |last=John |first=Arit |title=Beyond the Bechdel Test: Two (New) Ways of Looking at Movies |url=http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2013/08/beyond-bechdel-test-two-new-ways-looking-movies/68563/ |access-date=15 September 2013 |newspaper=The Atlantic |date=21 August 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130924231859/http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2013/08/beyond-bechdel-test-two-new-ways-looking-movies/68563/ |archive-date=2013-09-24 |url-status=live }}

A test proposed by TV critic Eric Deggans asks whether a film that is not about race has at least two non-white characters in the main cast, and similarly, writer Nikesh Shukla proposed a test about whether "two ethnic minorities talk to each other for more than five minutes about something other than race".{{cite news |last1=Shukla |first1=Nikesh |title=After the Bechdel Test, I propose the Shukla Test for race in film |url=http://www.newstatesman.com/2013/10/after-bechdel-test-i-propose-shukla-test-race-film |access-date=22 November 2016 |work=New Statesman |date=18 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161122222823/http://www.newstatesman.com/2013/10/after-bechdel-test-i-propose-shukla-test-race-film |archive-date=2016-11-22 |url-status=live }}{{cite news |last1=Dawn |first1=Randee |title=Gender and race issues are slowly fading as more filmmakers consider three key tests |url=http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/la-en-mn-1117-film-tests-20161011-snap-20161109-story.html |access-date=22 November 2016 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=17 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161122124417/http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/la-en-mn-1117-film-tests-20161011-snap-20161109-story.html |archive-date=2016-11-22 |url-status=live }} A 2017 speech by Riz Ahmed inspired the Riz test about the nature of Muslim representation in fiction,{{Cite web |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/finally-theres-a-bechdel-test-for-muslim-representation/ |title=Finally, There's a Bechdel Test for Muslim Representation |last1=Yusuf |first1=Abeer |last2=Berman |first2=Sarah |date=2018-08-24 |website=Vice |language=en-CA |access-date=2019-02-21 }} and Johanson analysis includes a rating of films on their representation of women of color.{{Cite web |last=Johanson |first=MaryAnn |date=2016-04-21 |title=Where Are the Women? rating criteria explained (updated!) |url=https://www.flickfilosopher.com/2016/04/where-are-the-women-rating-criteria-explained.html |access-date=2020-07-15 |website=FlickFilosopher.com |language=en-US }}

The New York Times film critic Manohla Dargis suggested in January 2016 the "DuVernay test" (named for director Ava DuVernay), asking whether "African-Americans and other minorities have fully realized lives rather than serve as scenery in white stories".{{cite news |last1=Dargis |first1=Manohla |title=Sundance Fights Tide With Films Like The Birth of a Nation |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/30/movies/sundance-fights-tide-with-films-like-the-birth-of-a-nation.html |access-date=4 February 2018 |work=The New York Times |date=29 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180204182351/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/30/movies/sundance-fights-tide-with-films-like-the-birth-of-a-nation.html |archive-date=2018-02-04 |url-status=live }} It aims to point out the lack of people of color in Hollywood movies, through a measure of their importance to a particular movie or the lack of a gratuitous link to white actors.{{cite web |url=https://www.thecut.com/2016/02/could-this-be-the-bechdel-test-for-race.html |title=Could This Be the Bechdel Test for Race |access-date=February 4, 2018 |last=Evans |first=Dayna |date=February 1, 2016 |work=The Cut |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180204182327/https://www.thecut.com/2016/02/could-this-be-the-bechdel-test-for-race.html |archive-date=2018-02-04 |url-status=live }}

Nadia Latif and Leila Latif of The Guardian suggested in 2016 a series of five questions:{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jan/18/hollywoods-race-problem-film-industry-actors-of-colour |title=How to fix Hollywood's race problem |access-date=June 20, 2017 |last1=Latif |last2=Latif |first1=Nadia |first2=Leila |date=January 18, 2016 |work=The Guardian |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170130054046/https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jan/18/hollywoods-race-problem-film-industry-actors-of-colour |archive-date=2017-01-30 |url-status=live }}

• Are there two named characters of color?
• Do they have dialogue?
• Are they not romantically involved with one another?
• Do they have any dialogue that isn't comforting or supporting a white character?
• Is one of them definitely not a magical negro?

For Bella Caledonia, poet Raman Mundair contrasted Sandra Oh's character in Killing Eve lacking any reference to her Korean heritage until she "has hit a complete emotional and psychological rock bottom" with the "authentic, true and engaging" Black characters in Michaela Coel's I May Destroy You in order to suggest a more-detailed test of "representation that exists outside the context of whiteness".{{cite news |url=https://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2021/02/08/passing-the-mundair-test/ |title=Passing the Mundair Test |first=Raman |last=Mundair |author-link=Raman Mundair |work=Bella Caledonia |date=2021-02-08 |access-date=2021-11-07 }} Making reference to British East and Southeast Asian media advocacy group BEATS's 3-question test,{{cite news |url=https://variety.com/2021/tv/global/uk-east-asian-representation-beats-test-1234885681/ |title=Where Are The U.K.'s East Asians On Screen? New Industry Test Hopes to Boost Representation |first=Manori |last=Ravindran |date=2021-01-14 |access-date=2021-11-07 }} in 2021, Mundair proposed criteria for how theatrical and broadcasting performances should represent people of color; these include characters being rooted in their communities and not dependent on white people for their happiness.

In 2018,{{Cite web |date=2018-03-09|title=Introducing 'The Kent Test' for Female Characters of Color in the Stories We Tell |url=https://www.themarysue.com/the-kent-test-for-woc/ |access-date=2021-03-08 |website=The Mary Sue |language=en }} culture critic Clarkisha Kent created the "Kent Test", which uses a point system to grade a story's representation of women of color. Stories lose points for fetishizing women of color characters or making them a "final sacrifice".{{Cite web |date=2018-06-01|title=Representation in Media

|url=https://equalityforher.com/resources/representation-in-media/ |access-date=2021-03-08 |website=Equality for HER |language=en-US }} {{Cite web |last=Jusino |first=Teresa |date=2018-03-09 |title=Introducing 'The Kent Test' for Female Characters of Color in the Stories We Tell |url=https://www.themarysue.com/the-kent-test-for-woc/ |access-date=2025-06-10 |website=The Mary Sue |language=en}}

The "Ali Nahdee Test" (formerly the "Aila Test"{{Cite web |last=Nahdee |first=Ali |date=2022-04-14 |title=My Statement on The Ali Nahdee Test |url=https://alinahdee.wordpress.com/2022/04/14/my-statement-on-the-ali-nahdee-test/ |access-date=2024-04-05 |website=Ali Nahdee |language=en}}), created by Ali Nahdee on her Tumblr blog, tests representation of Indigenous women in media. To pass, a story must have an indigenous woman main character who does not fall in love with a white man and who is not raped or killed.{{Cite web|title=The Alia Test: About|url=https://the-aila-test.tumblr.com/about|access-date=2021-08-06|website=Tumblr}}{{Cite web |first=Shea |last=Vassar |date=2020-05-14 |title=The 'Aila Test' evaluates representation of Indigenous women in media |url=https://www.hcn.org/articles/indigenous-affairs-interview-the-aila-test-evaluates-representation-of-indigenous-women-in-media |access-date=2021-08-06 |website=High Country News |language=en-US }}

Following a controversy over misrepresentation of Orthodox Judaism in television, the nonprofit organization Jew in the City proposed the "Josephs test" for depictions of Orthodox Jews in fiction.{{cite news |title=After NBC airs tone deaf episode of 'Nurses,' Orthodox Jews hold AMA |url=https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/after-nbc-airs-tone-deaf-episode-of-nurses-orthodox-jews-hold-ama-661817 |access-date=17 March 2021 |work=The Jerusalem Post {{!}} JPost.com |date=March 12, 2021}} The test includes four questions:

• Are there any Orthodox characters who are emotionally and psychologically stable?
• Are there characters who are Orthodox whose religious life is a characteristic but not a plot point or a problem?
• Can the Orthodox character find their Happily Ever After as a religious Jew?
• And if the main plot points are in conflict due to religious observance—are any characters not Hasidic or Haredi and have the writers actually researched authentic religious observance from practicing members of the community they are attempting to portray?{{cite web |last1=Levy |first1=Yael |title=Want to Represent Orthodox Jews Accurately? Take This Test Before Production Begins |url=https://jewinthecity.com/2021/03/want-to-represent-orthodox-jews-accurately-take-this-test-before-production-begins/ |website=Jew In The City |access-date=17 March 2021 |date=4 March 2021}}

The Bechdel test inspired a test for the presence of climate change in narratives. The "Climate Reality Check", a "Bechdel-Wallace test for a world on fire", was introduced in March 2024 and applied to the 2023 Oscar nominees.Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, Carmiel Banasky, Bruno Olmedo Quiroga, and Anna Jane Joyner. “[https://web.colby.edu/bucklab/files/2024/03/The-Climate-Reality-Check-A-Bechdel-Wallace-Test-for-a-World-on-Fire-1.pdf The Climate Reality Check: A Bechdel Test for a World on Fire].” Good Energy and the Buck Lab for Climate and Environment at Colby College, March 1, 2024. Its release was covered by NPR,{{Cite web |last=Veltman |first=Chloe |date=March 1, 2024 |title=There's a new 'Climate Reality Check' test — these 3 Oscar-nominated features passed |url=https://www.npr.org/2024/03/01/1234596219/barbie-mission-impossible-nyad-climate-bechdel-test |website=NPR News}} Variety,{{Cite web |last=Thompson |first=Jaden |date=March 1, 2024 |title=Which Oscar-Nominated Films Pass the New Climate Reality Check Test? |url=https://variety.com/2024/film/news/barbie-mission-impossible-dead-reckoning-nyad-oscars-climate-reality-check-1235914304/ |website=Variety}} The Hollywood Reporter,{{Cite web |last=Chuba |first=Kirsten |date=March 1, 2024 |title=Climate Version of Bechdel Test Released and Applied to This Year's Oscars Nominees, with 'Barbie' and 'Nyad' Among Passing Films |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/climate-version-bechdel-test-oscars-nominees-barbie-nyad-passing-1235833323/ |website=The Hollywood Reporter}} and other websites. The test is intended to be applied to "any story set on Earth, which takes place now, in the recent past, or in the future. It doesn't apply to high fantasy or to stories set on other planets or in the distant past." It includes two components:

• Climate change exists
• And a character knows it.

The Bechdel test has also inspired gender-related tests for nonfiction. Laurie Voss, at the time CTO of npm, proposed a Bechdel test for software: source code passes this test if it contains a function written by a woman developer which calls a function written by a different woman developer.{{Cite tweet |user=seldo |author=Laurie Voss |number=571453200093437952 |date=2015-02-27 |title=Does your project pass the Bechdel test? To pass, a function written by a woman dev must call a function written by another woman dev.}} Press notice was attracted{{Citation |title=There's Now A Bechdel Test For The Tech World |url=http://thinkprogress.org/culture/2015/03/19/3635965/tech-version-bechdel-test-often-code-written-women/ |first=Lauren C. |last=Williams |date=March 19, 2015 |publisher=ThinkProgress |access-date=2015-03-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150324175716/http://thinkprogress.org/culture/2015/03/19/3635965/tech-version-bechdel-test-often-code-written-women/ |archive-date=2015-03-24 |url-status=live }}{{Citation |title=A Bechdel Test for Tech? |url=https://insights.dice.com/2015/03/24/a-bechdel-test-for-tech/ |first=Nick |last=Kolakowski |date=Mar 24, 2015 |publisher=Dice.com |access-date=2018-11-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181112061005/https://insights.dice.com/2015/03/24/a-bechdel-test-for-tech/ |archive-date=2018-11-12 |url-status=live }} after the U.S. government agency 18F analyzed their own software according to this metric.{{Cite web |url=https://18f.gsa.gov/2015/03/17/does-18f-pass-the-bechdel-test-for-tech/ |title=Does 18F Pass the Bechdel Test for Tech? |date=March 17, 2015 |author1=Elaine Kamlley |author2=Melody Kramer |access-date=2015-03-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402153536/https://18f.gsa.gov/2015/03/17/does-18f-pass-the-bechdel-test-for-tech/ |archive-date=2015-04-02 |url-status=live }}

The Bechdel test also inspired the Finkbeiner test, a checklist to help journalists to avoid gender bias in articles about women in science,{{cite news |last=Brainard |first=Curtis |title='The Finkbeiner Test' Seven rules to avoid gratuitous gender profiles of female scientists |url=https://www.cjr.org/the_observatory/finkbeiner_test_gender_gap_fem.php?page=all |access-date=31 March 2013 |newspaper=Columbia Journalism Review |date=22 March 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130404081830/https://www.cjr.org/the_observatory/finkbeiner_test_gender_gap_fem.php?page=all |archive-date=2013-04-04 |url-status=live }} and Danielle Kranjec's "Kranjec test" of including sources written by someone who is not male on any source sheet in Torah study.{{Cite web|last=Hanau|first=Shira|date=|title=How a Bechdel test for Jewish texts is shaking up the beit midrash|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/how-a-bechdel-test-for-jewish-texts-is-shaking-up-the-beit-midrash/|access-date=2021-01-08|website=Times of Israel|language=en-US}}

The Gray test, intended to improve citational practices,{{Cite book|last=Belcher|first=Wendy|url=https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/W/bo26985005.html|title=Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks: A Guide to Academic Publishing Success|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=2019|isbn=9780226499918|edition=Second}} is named after and was created with the scholar Kishonna Gray. It requires that scholarly nonfiction texts cite the scholarship of "at least two [authors who identify as] women and two nonwhite [Black, Latino, or Indigenous] authors but also must mention it meaningfully in the body of the text". Like the Bechdel test, this was created as a "baseline test for establishing a bare minimum for responsible citation; it is not an aspirational test for best practices".{{Cite journal|last=Belcher|first=Wendy Laura|date=2021-03-24|title=Reflections: Are We Global Yet? African and the Future of Early Modern Studies|url=https://www.utpjournals.press/doi/abs/10.3138/ecf.33.3.413|journal=Eighteenth-Century Fiction|volume=33|issue=3|pages=413–446|language=en|doi=10.3138/ecf.33.3.413|s2cid=241782107|url-access=subscription}} It is being used by scholars and academic journals to vet articles.Mira Kafantaris, "Why Race before Race Now?" Petites Nouvelles (Ohio State University Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies) 1 (September 21, 2020), 5-7.{{Cite web|title=Submit to Can I Play That?|url=https://caniplaythat.com/submit-to-can-i-play-that/|access-date=2021-05-20|website=Can I Play That?|language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last1=Eidinger |first1=Andrea |date=2019-05-07 |title=Cultivating a Conscientious Citation Practice |url=https://www.unwrittenhistories.com/cultivating-a-conscientious-citation-practice/ |access-date=2021-05-20 |website=Unwritten Histories |language=en-US}}

{{Portal|Feminism|Film}}

{{div col|colwidth=20em|small=yes}}

• {{Annotated link |Damsel in distress}}
• {{Annotated link |Finkbeiner test}}
• {{Annotated link |Johanson analysis}}
• {{Annotated link |Manic Pixie Dream Girl}}
• {{Annotated link |Mary Sue}}
• {{Annotated link |The Bechdel Cast}}
• Reverse harem – gender opposite of a "straight" harem
• {{Annotated link |Smurfette principle}}
• {{Annotated link |Tokenism}}
• {{Annotated link |Women in refrigerators|Women in refrigerators/Fridging}}

{{div col end}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite web|last1=Julig|first1=Carina Lousie|title=The Lesbian Roots of the Bechdel Test|url=https://www.afterellen.com/movies/554153-lesbian-roots-bechdel-test|website=AfterEllen|date=February 2, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180202230941/https://www.afterellen.com/movies/554153-lesbian-roots-bechdel-test|archive-date=February 2, 2018}}

{{wiktionary|Bechdel test}}

• [http://bechdeltest.com/ Bechdel Test Movie List] at bechdeltest.com (user-edited database)
• [http://bechdeltestingcomics.tumblr.com/ Bechdel Testing Comics] blog at Tumblr (2011–2012)
• [http://bechdelgamer.wordpress.com/ Bechdel Gamer] blog (2012–2013)
• [http://women-in-film.silk.co/ Women in Film] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150708184409/http://women-in-film.silk.co/ |date=July 8, 2015 }}, analysis tool for data from bechdeltest.com {{link note|note=Website defunct}}

{{Women in Media}}

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