The Bechdel test is used to identify gender bias in fiction. A work passes the test if it features at least two women who talk to each other about something other than a man. Commentators have noted that a great proportion of contemporary works fail to pass this threshold of representing women.
The test was originally conceived for evaluating films, but has since been applied to other media. It is also known as the Bechdel/Wallace test,[1] the Bechdel rule,[2] Bechdel's law,[3] or the Mo Movie Measure.[4]
Only a small proportion of films pass the Bechdel test, according to writer Charlie Stross[13] and film director Jason Reitman.[14] According to Mark Harris of Entertainment Weekly, if passing the test were mandatory, it would have jeopardized half of 2009's Best Picture nominees and would cut the length of the annual Comic-Con from five days to 45 minutes.[12] Stross also noted that about half of the films that do pass the test only do so because the women talk about marriage or babies.[13] Works that fail the test include some that are mainly about or aimed at women, or which do feature prominent female characters. The television series Sex and the City highlights its own failure to pass the test by having one of the four female main characters ask: "How does it happen that four such smart women have nothing to talk about but boyfriends? It's like seventh grade with bank accounts!"[9]