from stross' diary

[chronovore]

Charlie's Diary: Bechdel's Law:

Alison Bechdel, cartoonist and author of Dykes to Watch Out For, has an interesting observation on movies — a little test she applies to them. It's a very short checklist, viz:

1. Does it have at least two women in it,

2. Who [at some point] talk to each other,

3. About something besides a man.

I bring this up as a point of interest, because of what it says about the blind spots of popular entertainment. Most Hollywood movies fail this test; if you extend #3 only slightly, to read "About something besides men or marriage or babies", you can strike out about 50% of the small proportion of mass-entertainment movies that do otherwise seem to pass the test.

Comments

[ferricide.livejournal.com]

well, most action movies since the 90s have cast a woman as like a Nuclear Biologist or something so she can talk about the Mutant Virus that's taking over the world which has to be dealt with by the hero.

[chronovore.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but she would talk about that stuff to a group, or another man -- the hero. The question is, can you find a case where two women speak with each other at any length about "something besides men or marriage or babies"?