Bechdel Test Movie List

There's a discussion between a character's girlfriend and his mother about the girlfriend's new hair.

Oy vey. Do we need any more proof that the Bechdel Test does not correspond to promotion of strong female characters?

The girlfriend and the mother don't have names?

Sadly, their character names are completely pointless in this movie. They exist only to be "the girlfriend" and "the mother".

And while their nanosecond discussion of hair may pass the test on a purely technical level, I have to say that the spirit and intent of the test would declare the movie an utter failure. Just my two cents.

Robin, I don't think the test is about "strong" female characters. It's a question of whether there is any female presence in the movie at all outside of adjunct to men, and also a tool to get discussions like this going.

So it passes. And hopefully we also notice that this movie deeply sucks, for many reasons in addition to the weak, trivial, role of the hysterical mother and sex object girlfriend.

According to Wikipedia, the mother doesn't have a name. So technically I think the conversation between the mother and the girlfriend does not count as a pass.

If both female characters aren't named it doesn't pass

You guys are forgetting the ahem "spirit" of the "named character" part of the rule.

It is meant to exclude transient exchanges. For example: 15 seconds of a woman telling her female cab driver to take her to the airport wouldn't count.

But if a female character has a meaningful role in the film it doesn't matter if they are named or not, or if you can remember them.

Overtime I'll forget characters names in movies if they aren't iconic, repeated,or the actor is overshadowing the character they play. Other than Sam and Mikaela I don't remember in human Transformers character's name.


The movie is terrible. It is not a feminist work by any stretch of the imagination. But it passes, barely.