The Bechdel Test

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Created in 1985 by Alison Bechdel, with the assistance of her friend Liz Wallace, the Bechdel Test is a concept used to analyze women in the media. There are three things needed for something to pass the test:

The work of fiction has to have at least two women in it.
The women talk to each other.
The discussion is about something besides a man.

I figured that I’d start a thread about Bechdel-compliant media since I didn’t find any such threads made by other users on this site yet. My choice is the original Powerpuff Girls. A couple of episodes clearly passed, but one episode in particular that stuck out to me was “Equal Fights”. The eponymous trio tried to catch a villainous radical feminist named Femme Fatale, but she convinced the triplets to hate men, so she could get away with her crimes, like stealing all of the Susan B. Anthony dollars in the city of Townsville. (“Real nineties kids” remember those coins, at least if they lived IN AMERICA!) It was up to Sara Bellum (the mayor's secretary) and Ms. Keane (the heroines’ kindergarten teacher) to explain the importance of protecting everyone, regardless of gender, after other women revealed how they had been victimized by Fatale when she wasn’t busy acting sexist towards men.

Oh, yes, the Bechdel-test…. It’s kind of sad that most of the shows I know and love would probably fail this test (I guess, it’s mostly because well written and rounded female characters are still somewhat underrepresented in media, but well… that’s a different topic I think).
One show I liked that would definitely pass this test is “Orphan Black”. I watched it a year ago, so I can’t name a certain scene or episode right now but most (or at least many) episodes are Bechdel-test compliant, as most of the main characters are women (most of them played by the same actress – sounds strange but it works surprisingly well!) and they have many other problems to deal with that than to constantly talk about boyfriend- and relationship-problems.

I found some sites that listed the shows and movies that passed the test. Not surprisingly to me*, nearly all the shows I enjoyed watching and a good number of the movies I enjoyed (and all the ones I owned) were on that list.

*I know studies show that guys like stuff with male protagonists, and women/girls don't care, but I guess I'm strange. I've always had a strong preference for stuff with a female protagonist and a bit of an aversion to stuff with a male protagonist. I've tried to be more open, but those are my natural inclinations.