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

[[2]] The Boxtrolls (2014) [imdb]

This movie passed 2 of 3 tests. It was entered by NessieNos on 2014-08-13 15:18:03.

Reviews

Comments

NessieNos said:
The only named female characters are the female lead (a snotty, entitled, morbid, smart girl who plays second banana to the hero) and her mother, who's barely a character and only has a few lines. They only speak once, very briefly and mostly about the male hero. The mother does tell the girl she needs to change her dress during that conversation, but the girl responded by speaking to the hero, not her mother.
Message posted on 2014-08-13 15:18:03
rebecca said:
It's pathetic that these movies can't have a female lead. No, the women have to play second fiddle to male power fantasies and be treated like ragdolls that the men can do whatever they want with. Kids deserve better than this.
Message posted on 2014-08-28 18:10:30
Matthew said:
Winnie and her mother did have a conversation with each other, but it was about Eggs. I would have said it passed 2 out of 3 tests, but it still fails at giving women a place. There are dozens of boxtrolls, but not a single one of them is a female. Not one. There were very few human women too.
Message posted on 2014-09-29 01:06:23
neil (webmaster) said:
I've updated the rating from 1/3 to 2/3.
Message posted on 2014-10-02 14:38:14
Melissa said:
Well, we don't necessarily *know* that none of the box trolls are female. We "code" them as male, but maybe they just have no sexual dimorphism, or sexual dimorphism that we don't recognize. Maybe they're all hermaphrodites or something, even, we just don't know.

But I agree that, since we do tend to "code" them as male, they should count as male characters for Bechdel purposes.
Message posted on 2015-02-25 17:04:25
jessamyn said:
I think we think the boxtrolls are masculine because they are (almost entirely) voiced by men. Add to this the whole heaviness surrounding "fathers" and it's strongly implied though I agree, not stated.
Message posted on 2015-04-06 20:55:51
Skrol29 disagreed with the rating and said:
It seems to me that the mother doesn't have a name in the story.

And when they talk to each other it's only about Eggs. When the mother talk about something else, she doesn't talk "with" the girl, but "to" the girl (she gives an order and there is no reply).

So according to me it's 0/3.
Message posted on 2015-06-18 09:28:57

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