Steel Magnolias: Bechdel Test

           The Steel Magnolias is set in Louisiana about a group of six women.  It mainly focuses around one of the character’s wedding that is taking place during the majority of the film.  When I picked this film I was confident that it would pass and I was right.  The majority of the conversations were about mostly about men, but there were occasional conversations that would not include a male.

There were six female characters that had names in this movie M’Lynn, Truvy, Ouiser, Annelle, Clairee, and Shelby.  All the women characters interact as a close knit circle of friends, and are frequently at a beauty salon sharing about their individual lives. The majority of the movie was about the women talking to each other and setting up the plot.  They talked a lot about males, but other topics came up as well. They talked about religion, their past, death, health, and other members of the community.  When M’Lynn’s daughter Shelby died the conversation about life and death did not include a male.  M’Lynn talked to Annelle about how lost she was because she was supposed to die before, her daughter, Shelby. M’Lynn had a very hard time accepting that fact.

I do believe this is a feminist film for many reasons.  First of all it has very headstrong and independent females casted as the head roles. Males are mentioned in conversations frequently, but they are not the highlight of the film.  A good example of feminist characters are Ouister and Clairee,  Ouister is a very stubborn and load spoken woman who made it clear she did not need a man because she had more money than God. Clairee owned a successful radio station just for the fun of it, and she never mentioned having or wanting a man in her life.

By: Amber Brandt