"Most Superhero and Sci-Fi Films Would Fail ..." Topic

…Sweden's New Film Rating

"Ender Wiggin, Bilbo Baggins, Luke Skywalker, Harry Potter – they're all genre heroes. They're also all dudes. And under a new rating being introduced in some Swedish cinemas, their films would all be failures.

The new rating system, which was created by a handful of theaters in Sweden, states that in order for a film to get an "A" rating, it must pass what's known as the "Bechdel Test." It's a metric created by comics artist Alison Bechdel in the 1980s and is often used to evaluate the representation of women in media. The test stipulates a movie only passes if it has two women in it – with actual names – who talk about something other than a man. On the surface, it doesn't seem like too high of a bar, but in actuality, very few mainstream sci-fi and superhero flicks would clear it.

"The entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, all the Star Wars movies, The Social Network, Pulp Fiction and all but one of the Harry Potter movies fail this test," Ellen Tejle, the director of Stockholm movie house Bio Rio told the Associated Press…"
Full article here
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Amicalement
Armand

I guess it would also knock out most war films such as Platoon and Apocalypse Now.

… and those that make the "A" rating would in all likelihood be boring, at least to male viewers.

What do the Swedish know?

I don't go to movies to watch women talk.

But I would know that with this Rating if they rate a movie with an "A" then I know that I probably would not be interested in it.

Oh, the irony of it all…

I guess most Swedish "movies" wouldn't make the A grade either: lots of unnamed women without text ;-)

The Bechdel test certainly makes one stop and think.

If you're as confused as I was by the article, it's because it leaves out a critical piece of the Bechdel test: the two women have to talk to each other. Also, the requirement that the women have names is not one of Bechdel's criteria, although that is a common variant added by people who apply the test.

Wait, wait, wait…

So with this, "rating system," you either get an "A" or you fail?

I think that is referred to as, "pass/fail," why bother with a letter grade?????

Aliens would pass. Possibly Alien, too.

A couple more movies that wouldn't be "good enough" for them would be Henry Ford in "12 Angry Men" and Spencer Tracy in "The Old Man and the Sea".

"A couple more movies that wouldn't be "good enough" for them would be Henry Ford in "12 Angry Men" and Spencer Tracy in "The Old Man and the Sea"."

Which demonstrates the overwhelming imbalance in the number of speaking roles for men vs. women in films and television: it's roughly 2:1. Having a young daughter, this is becoming ever more glaringly obvious to me.

As for those of you who say, "I wouldn't enjoy those films," fine. But many women wouldn't enjoy the films that you like, they're 50% of the population, and far fewer films are made that are oriented toward women.