Ever heard of the Bechdel test for movies?
Devised by Alison Bechdel, the test is whether a film contains at least two named women characters who talk to each other about something other than a man. You’ll find a fuller examination here.
My all-time favourite film – “Lawrence Of Arabia” – fails the test totally. One of the best films I have seen recently – “Captain Phillips” – fails it too. So do all the “Star Wars” movies and all “The Lord Of The Rings” trilogy.
The test – for sexism in the cinema – is not infallible. after all, the film I will see this weekend – “Gravity” – has a serious and central role for a woman, played by Sandra bullock, and it too would fail the test.
But the test is a good way of stimululating debate on an important issue and in Sweden they are now classifying films using the test – see here.