Footloose Bechdel Test (Haley Jensen)

The Bechdel Test Footloose (2011)

  Footloose is about a group of high school kids that are trying to bring dancing back to their town after it became against the law because they lost some of their own teenagers when driving home from a dance. Things eventually come around in the town of Bomont, Georgia after the main character Ren comes to town from Boston.

The movie did pass the Bechdel test. The two women characters are Ariel and Rusty. They are close friends and go to school together. They talk to each other multiple times throughout the movie. They did talk about something other than a man a few times, but in some cases they did have conversations about a man; for example, when Ren came to town they talked about him.

I had a hard time deciding if this movie was feminist or not. In some ways I think it is and in other ways I don’t think so. Overall, there is a pretty good balance of male and female characters throughout the film. Also, at the town meeting, Reverend Shaw’s wife did speak up and say that she disagreed with dancing not being allowed in the town. This is important because it shows a female taking a stand and saying how she feels and what she believes instead of just going along with what the men say. On the other hand though, the majority of the authority figures of the town of Bomont, Georgia are mostly male and not female. This shows that all the people in power and making the important decisions are mostly male. The movie also uses Ariel, the preacher’s daughter, who is a good girl that has gone bad. In my opinion, I think that this is an overused stereotype and kind of character. Also, Ariel’s rebellious boyfriend Chuck beats her up and gives her a black eye and Ariel never told her parents who really did that to her and therefore Chuck was never punished for hurting her. This doesn’t really set a good example because it shows that it is okay for him to beat her up and that he can just get away with it. Overall, the film did have feminist parts and other parts that were not so feminist.