The Bechdel Test is more popular than ever, but I'm worried it's also becoming misunderstood. People are using the Bechdel Test as a simple pass-fail to determine whether a movie is feminist or not. That's not true. It's a rule of thumb to point out the gross sexism in moviemaking. I suspect that Hollywood is catching on to the Bechdel Test, and that studios are going to start including needless scenes where two female characters talk about something unrelated to men, just so they can claim that their movie passes the test. But the point of all this is to make sure that screenwriters are writing women as real, human characters.

The Mary Sue brought this infographic to my attention. It shows that in 2013, films that pass the Bechdel Test are more likely to make money than films that fail the Bechdel Test:


Which is great! But this chart doesn't mean that GI Joe: Retaliation or Smurfs 2 is a better-written movie than, say, Captain Phillips. (Gravity doesn't pass the Bechdel Test, either, but it really ought to be considered Bechdel-friendly; there are only three characters on-screen for the whole movie and the female protagonist is one of the strongest people in film this year.) The above chart marks a very important step. And if Hollywood does get around to mandating a Bechdel-Test-friendly scene in every one of their shitty, sexist blockbusters, that's an incremental step toward the good, too. But there's a long way to go. A lot of Hollywood is still in the business of making money by treating women as objects, and business, for them, is still booming.