Dear Oscars: Women Are People Too!

With the Oscars coming up later this month, this years’ nominees are all anyone seems to be able to talk about. There are some amazing films up for all of the positions this year, with titles such as The Revenant, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Carol leading the nominations. While it has been a fantastic year for movies, how’s it been for women in movies?

Gender equality in Hollywood, both behind and on the screen, is an ever-present issue. Women are paid less, have less important roles, and are all but excluded from the technical aspects of filmmaking. Do you know how many women have ever won the Academy Award for best director? One. Kathryn Bigelow won in 2009 for her work on The Hurt Locker. While employment inequality is a huge issue, today’s topic is a little more about the characters than the performers. So often, female characters in movies exist only to be a love interest to the male lead, or to be a sort of damsel in distress. This is obviously not a new issue, and it is something women have been fighting for a long time.

One of these women is Alison Bechdel. Bechdel is an American cartoonist, best known for her creation of “The Bechdel-Wallace Test” in her cartoon strip Dykes to Watch Out For. The Bechdel-Wallace test is a test used to determine whether a movie has decent enough female representation. There are three tests the movie must pass: One, it must have at least two female characters. Two, they must talk to each other, and three, it must be about something other than a man. Easy, right? Maybe not. The amount of well known and well loved films that fail this test is a little shocking. To get an idea of what movies are doing right and what they aren’t so much, let’s take a look at this years nominees for Best Picture.

The Big Short: FAIL

While there are a couple women in the movie, they never actually appear in the same scene, let alone talk to one another. The ladies of this film are more of eye candy than substantial characters.

Bridge of Spies: FAIL

While this film also fails, it makes a bit more sense in this context. It’s about military politics in the 1960s, so obviously that doesn’t leave a lot of room for women. Some of the male characters’ wives and girlfriends appear, but only to talk to them or their children, and they have very, very little screen time.

Brooklyn: PASS

Brooklyn passes the test with flying colours. The story centres around a young Irish immigrant girl, and while romance is a central factor of the story, her coming of age and struggles in a new world are just as relevant and important. Eilis lives in a boarding house with a group of other young women, and is surrounded by strong female characters the whole way through.

Mad Max: Fury Road: PASS

Another easy pass, Mad Max is full of strong female characters, most notably Furiosa. Max acknowledges Furiosa’s obvious strengths and treats her as a complete equal, trusting her and letting her take charge when he knows she’s better at something. Bonus points for Furiosa’s badass mechanical arm, which is also never seen as a limiting factor for her.

The Martian: PASS

Because this movie is about a guy stuck on Mars, obviously most of the conversations revolve around him. However, the two women on the crew of the spaceship discuss some technical aspects about decompressing certain sections of the ship. While this one is pretty on the border, the positive representations of women in science push this over to a pass for me.

The Revenant: FAIL

Hard, hard FAIL. There’s only two female characters to speak of in this movie, one of whom is only shown as a murder victim in flashbacks and the other is kidnapped and raped and only has one line. This is definitely the worst film for women of the nominees this year.

Room: PASS

Joy and Nancy have several conversations about things other than men, notably about their shared trauma and dealing with it and moving on. This film passes quite easily, and although it’s not necessarily a feminist movie, it has a realistic portrayal of women and family relationships.

Spotlight: FAIL

Although some people would say this one passes, I’m going to say it doesn’t. That pass relies on Sacha’s grandmother, who doesn’t even have a name beyond that, asking her for a glass of water. Sacha is the only female reporter in the central group, and while she is a strong character, it’s very much a man’s world.

The Bechdel-Wallace test is a great starting point to test a movie’s gender diversity, but it isn’t the be-all end-all. Great feminist classics like Run Lola Run entirely fail, while movies like Anchorman and Weird Science actually pass. And female representation isn’t the only thing to check up on: The Vito Russo test and the Race test are great for checking out movies’ LGBT+ and racial representation. Make sure to check back next month for my list of Top 10 Feminist Movies. Until then, if you’re looking for some great new movies to check out, don’t forget to take a look at Averi’s 7 Movies to Watch During Your 7 Day Break!