A test named after American cartoonist Alison Bechdel and friend Liz Wallace. The test measures the representation of women in fiction. The basic measure is that a work of fiction features at least 2 women who talk to each other about something other than a man. An added measure is that the women be named.
The test is used as an indicator for the active presence of women in the entire field of film and other fiction, and to call attention to gender inequality in fiction.
- must have 2+ named women
- named women talk to each other
- topic of discussion is not a man/ men regarding relationship(s)
The Bechdel Test is not meant as a moral or ethical judgment on the quality of female characters in a work. Nor is it designed as a judgment on the artistic quality of the work - good movies can fail the Bechdel Test, and bad movies can pass. It is entirely possible for a film to pass without having pro-feminist themes, or even characterizing women positively. It is possible for female main character films to fail the test and bad movies to pass the test.
Bechdel's original point was about how lesbian women specifically feel isolated from popular media. When there are so many examples that fail, and female characters often spend all their time talking about the men in their lives, women who aren't attracted to men can feel justifiably disconnected and underrepresented.
TV shows often use a final average score approach based on a episode-by-episode basis, if 7 episodes pass the test out of 13 episodes.