Mama: The Bechdel Test

Mama: The Bechdel Test

            Mama is a horror movie where two girls, Victoria and Lily, are kidnapped by their father, then end up getting into an accident and stagger to a small abandoned house by the lake with their father where they are about to be executed, when they are saved by a vengeful spirit in which Victoria and Lily call “Mama”. Five years after this incident, the girls are found by a search party funded by the uncle, Luke; after they are removed from the abandoned house, Mama follows Victoria and Lily into their new home with uncle Luke and auntie Annabelle and horror ensues.

            I believe the movie does pass the test. There was a point within the movie, where Annabelle was asking Victoria questions about Mama, and Dr. Dreyfus was brought up in the conversation, but not much was said about him. Uncle Luke was in a coma for half the movie after being pushed down the stairs by Mama, so not much was said about him either, other than him being in the hospital for a while, and that it would just be Annabelle and the girls.

            I believe the movie is feminist because the men within the movie played supporting roles and aren’t in the movie much, as the movie is plotted around Mama, Victoria, Lily, and Annabelle. In the end, it is Annabelle who saves Victoria when Luke becomes unconscious after Mama grabbed his heart through his chest. Mama took the life essence out of Annabelle to make her sleep, but with a “mother’s will” Annabelle still gathered enough strength to hold Victoria back from getting dragged off the cliff with Mama. Lily wanted to go with Mama, so not much could have been done there to save her, but the men were pretty useless in the movie.

Bechdel Test

The movie I chose to watch for the Bechdel Test was the 2002 film, Sweet Home Alabama.  This movie is about a southern girl, Melanie Carmichael, trying to make it big in New York as a fashion designer.  She has met the love of her life or so she thought and he proposes to her.  Before she can marry him she has to go visit her past because she is still married to her southern sweetheart, Jake.  While back home she falls in love with Jake and at the end of the movie she has to choose if she wants to still be married to Jake or if she wants to start a new life with her new love Andrew. 

I believe that this movie does pass the Bechdel Test.  There are many female characters in this movie.  These characters include, Melanie Carmichael (main character), Pearl Smooder (mother), Dorthia (friend), LauraLynn (friend), and Stella (Jake’s mom).  These characters did talk to each other throughout the movie.  Some of their conversations included talking about what Melanie was going to do about Jake or Andrew but there were many times that they talked about things other than those men in her life.  Many of the conversations with her friends included catching up on the things she missed when she moved to New York.  One conversation with her friend Dorthia was about how she looks so different and that she had lost 110 pounds.  Another conversation with her friend LauraLynn was about clothes they were wearing and the fact that she was toting her baby around with her as she was working at the bar. 

I do not believe that this film is feminist because it mostly focuses on Melanie trying to get Jake to sign the divorce papers and then how she realizes she is still in love with him and doesn’t want to marry Andrew.  There is a scene in the movie that could be considered feminist though.  This scene includes Jake coming home to Melanie cooking in the kitchen and wearing an apron.  When Jake walks in she asks him how the family is doing while she still stirs the food.  She had also cleaned the house, redecorated and done some grocery shopping.  I don’t believe it was trying to be feminist because Melanie was trying to teach Jake a lesson by spending all of his money and doing her “wifely” duties. 

Kristin Isakson

Bechdel Test

The movie “The Best of Me” is about a girl named Amanda and a guy named Dawson who fall in love when they are teenagers.  Dawson isn’t exactly close with his family because they are bad people so he moves out of the house to live with a guy named Tuck.  When Amanda and Dawson grow up, they both get a call with the news that Tuck passed away in his sleep.  They get reunited when they both have to go to Tucks house and spend a couple days together to take care of his belongings.  Even though Amanda is married now and has one child, she wants to leave her husband and be with Dawson.  Dawson, however, ends up dying and gives his heart to her son, which the son needed because he got in a terrible car accident. 

This movie didn’t pass the test because even though there was more than one girl in it, the girls never talked to each other.  I don’t think that this is a feminist movie because it doesn’t make the girls look vulnerable or desperate and the girls never talk about their significant other to each other.  Amanda does talk about Dawson in the movie, but she is either talking to Tuck or her husband once she grows up.  The other girl April, who is Dawson’s friend in the movie, talks about her significant other but only to Dawson.  April and Amanda never talk during the movie.  It’s just your typical movie about two people falling in love and the majority of the movie is filming Dawson and Amanda when they are teenagers and adults.

Thelma & Louise

Thelma & Lousie, a film that was released in 1991, is about two women who are friends and want to take a vacation for a weekend to escape their lives at home.  They end up shooting a man, who tried to rape one of them, and running from the law.  During their escape to Mexico they discover things about themselves and each other.

This movie did pass the Bechdel test.  The two main characters were women.  Thelma is a naïve housewife whose only role appeared to be serving and obeying her husband.  Louise is a methodical waitress who is having relationship issues with her boyfriend.  A majority of the movie was the two women having conversations with each other.  Many of the conversations between the two women were about men, but they also had conversations about money, about one another’s lives and how they were going to solve the variety of problems that they encountered.

I think this is a feminist film for a number of reasons.  First, I think it is a feminist film because throughout the movie Thelma transforms from a meek housewife, who is satisfied being controlled by her rude and controlling husband, to an empowered woman who wants to take control of her life.  At the end of the movie she says that she has changed too much to ever go back to the life she had before.  Also, the women are portrayed as the heroes of the movie, while most of the men are portrayed as the antagonists.  The film ends in a police chase.  In most of the movies I’ve seen police chases are of men who are being chased by the police, not women.  At the end of the movie, after the police have caught up to them, they decide to keep driving and choose their own fate, instead of being controlled and letting someone else (the police) decide how their story ends.  This shows that women can be in control of their lives and do not need men to make decisions.

   The Heat 

The Bechdel Test

Did this movie pass the test...........................?    

        I decided to watch the movie "The Heat." I thought it was a comical movie about two powerful women playing a role that is generally stereotyped to fit the role of male a character. 

 This movie is about a female special agent who goes by the name of Sarah Ashburn. Ashburn is sent to Boston to take down a dangerous drug lord known as Larkin. The other main character in the movie is officer Mullins who is very opinionated and doesn't always like playing by the rules. These two females do not get along well in the beginning but they find a way to work together to take down the drug lord. This movie is solely based off of these two women investigating a case that ends up building a friendship between the two of them. I believe this movie passes the Bechdel Test but I am not 100% persuaded that this is a feminist movie. There was one scene in the movie where Ashburn uses her physical features to manipulate a man for information about the drug lord. This scene may make it difficult to determine whether or not it is truly a feminist movie. To me this scene could have been left out of the movie to give a more positive feminist image. For the most part this movie focuses on these two women and their ability to solve a case and be successful in their profession. These women are able to show some "Girl Power" by taking over the bad guys and making it clear that they are just as capable as any other male officer. These two women also play their parts a little differently than the "average female role". These women portray what are claimed to be "strong male characteristics". They have foul mouths, they talk about inappropriate things that may not be seen as very "lady like", and they feel the need to be very dominant. Overall this movie was able to show how women have the ability to succeed in a heavily male dominated profession.

Agent Ashburn, "Men are intimidated by the presence of a strong woman"

The Notebook

The Notebook is a timeless romantic book by Nicholas Sparks that was created into a movie in 2004. The movie captures the life of Noah and Allie and the journey of love and heartbreak they share together, meeting as teenagers in the late 1930’s. It is their social classes that make it difficult for the two to be together because of Allie’s parents. They believe Noah isn’t a suitable man for Allie. Although they separate for a part of their lives, fate brings them together again. Now Allie has  choice to stay with her fiancé who is a wonderful man or to go with Noah, her first love and the person she has always been in love with. Like any good romance movie, she follows her heart and goes back to Noah. They live together in the dream house that Noah had built for Allie over the years and grow old together.

I had done some research to see if other people had done a Bechdel test on the Notebook. I had found one other person who had posted it about the movie and said that it passed. Upon watching the movie I found that my personal opinion was that it did not pass and I will explain why. There are only 5 women in the movie that have names and that includes Allie, Anne (Allie’s mother), Sara (Allie’s friend), Martha (one of Noah’s girlfriends), and the elderly version of Allie. Although there seem to be a fair amount of women in the movie, not once did they talk about something other than a man, especially about Noah. All of Allie’s conversations with her mother revolve around Noah. If she is talking about school, it is to make sure she goes to the school far from Noah. More than that, I noticed that every argument revolved around Noah or her mother trying to protect her from that type of life. The conversations between Allie and Sara were about their dates or Noah and Sara was only present for a few scenes in the movie. Last but not least there’s the conversation between Martha and Allie. They know each other because of Noah and the scene doesn’t show them talking to each other about much except for what they knew about each other.

In my personal opinion I do not think this film was feminist. I can see how some people may view it that way because of how it showed that Noah wasn’t suitable for Allie because he wasn’t destined to make a lot of money and she needed a man to take care of her; however, I like how this movie captures the love and how Allie has a choice of whom she wants to live her life with, her fiancé or Noah. Another thing to point out is that this movie is also focused on a previous generation. I am a sucker for a good love story and because of this I don’t think anything could change the way I view this film for other than a timeless romantic love story.

 

Links

http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTk3OTM5Njg5M15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTYwMzA0ODI3._V1_SX640_SY720_.jpg

http://bechdeltest.com/view/781/the_notebook/

 

 

        Easy A is a comedy about a girl in high school who lies about her sex life. It all started as an excuse to get out of a camping trip, but after the whole school found out, other people were asking her to lie more. Men who wanted to change their reputation went to Olive to ask her to say she slept with them in exchange for money or gift cards. Eventually this began to really hurt her. She had no friends and the whole school was turned against her. Expect for one guy. He later helps her to tell the whole truth to the school, by having her sing to the school and announce she is doing a webcast. At the end of the movie they go on a date.

         I had expected that the movie would pass the Bechdel Test because there are a few conversations between mother and daughter that are not about men. Even though the movie did pass, it did not pass with conversations between the two. They never say the name of Olive's mom. I did some research and find out her character name, but they never mention it in the movie. However, Olive does have a conversation with her friend Rhiannon about going on a camping trip. Eventually Olive says she can't because she is hanging out with a guy, but she doesn't bring it up until the end. Because of the story line, men tend to show up and some point of the conversations, but that is not usually the point of the conversations. They tend to be something more personal between the two women. There is one conversation that happens between Olive and Rhiannon that has nothing to do with a man. Rhiannon joined a protest group to get Olive out of the school. The signs call her a slut, but when Olive sees her friend, she goes up to her to ask why she is joining them. Rhiannon expresses her anger and continues to protest.  

       I believe you could argue either way whether this movie is feminist or not. I think if you decide to read it that way, you could find evidence, but I personally wouldn't consider it feminist. I think the point is to over exaggerate high school experiences to show just how much someone can be hurt.