Bechdel Test Movie List

/bech·del test/ n.
1. It has to have at least two [named] women in it
2. Who talk to each other
3. About something besides a man

[[3]] Don’t Look Up (2021) [imdb]

This movie passed 3 of 3 tests. It was entered by Meg on 2021-12-28 04:33:27.

Reviews

Comments

Meg said:
The women in the movie talk to each other but they could not be called conversations but rather snips of words where they run each other down. It’s sickening, really. And there are several other misogynist choices.
Message posted on 2021-12-28 04:33:27
Almo said:
This supposed failure is only because someone has made a value judgement in the types of conversations between women in the film. There are several exchanges between women I can think of that are not about a man, and that means it passes the test.

Whether or not the movie shows women in a positive light is another matter entirely, which is beyond the scope of this comment.
Message posted on 2021-12-29 06:05:18
zalx said:
I disagree with this. Jennifer Lawrence's character Kate speaks with Meryl Streep's in the Oval Office. She also discusses the comet with Cate Blanchett's character on the TV show. She speaks again with her mum at one point. She has a brief conversation with June further on. It easily passes the test, and also I don't think it really comes across as misogynistic. Brie is highly educated and gets what she wants due to her confidence. Kate is a genius who gets what is going on throughout. June shows real strength in her own storyline, and Meryl Streep plays the President.
Message posted on 2021-12-30 16:11:10
Ben said:
It passes, but barely, as Meg says. The fact that several major parts are played by women mitigates this a little, and the ironic way in which media is represented passing over the ‘hysterical woman’ to the ‘sensible man’ shows a degree of awareness.

The message of the film is important: a good metaphor for the Holocene extinction that the world is choosing to ignore ‘cos, hey who wants to be told that they’re gonna die?
Message posted on 2022-01-01 00:37:58
Hafsa said:
This movie passes easily the test.
While female relationships are not the subject of the film, there is a scene where Lawerence’s character talks to Meryl’s character about not voting for her as a president she would support and back her decision to destroy the commet.
Other than that, this film was pretty self-aware of the gender double standards that we have in our societies, I’ll try to name a few:
1. Dr. Mindy was given the credit for the commet even though Kate discovered it. It was named after her, sure, but later on he was more included in the conversation, more thanked for the commet, given a white house official title, given the opportunity to speak first and generally hailed as the hero of the story. I actually liked that the movie highlighted this biais towards the white straight male of the group.
2. When Kate went hysteric during the live morning show, there was a negative backlash, the public turned her into a laughing stock, she was dubbed as crazy, she was dumped by her boyfriend and nobody took her seriously after that. When Dr. Mindy did the same there was no backlash. It’s almost like he is allowed to react that way.
Message posted on 2022-01-02 16:41:09
Nick said:
Like others have said, this film does pass the test, since there are several cases of women talking to eachother about things other than a man in the movie. Meg's rating is not based on whether it passes or not, but due to their personal dislike of the film for reasons that I don't really understand.

The film isn't exactly a feminist movie, but it ain't misogynistic, it literally mocks sexism in at least two ways, and while some of the female roles are portrayed as stupid, so are several of the male characters.
Message posted on 2022-01-08 10:08:31
neil (webmaster) said:
I've updated the rating from 1/3 to 3/3.
Message posted on 2022-01-12 12:10:38

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