Mo's Movie Measure or Bechdel's Rule

[gategrrl]

 Alison Bechdel has a blog which has the original 1985 comic strip the Mo's Movie Measure originates from. Here's the LINK to the blog and the strip.

I only came across this Rule at Hathor a year or so ago, but the meaning of it didn't sink in until I really started thinking about why certain movies appeal to Mermaid and myself more than others.

Here's Mo Movie Measure:

1. There must be at least two women in the movie
2. They must talk to each other
3. Their dialogue subject must not be men.

Sounds pretty simple and there should be lots of quality movies out there that satisfy such a simple requirement, eh?

See if your favorite films have a scene (just one!) between two women and pass this 'test'.

Comments

[betacandy.livejournal.com]

Fight Club is out. Anything by Lucas or Spielberg. Yeesh.

Dolores Claiborne is in. That's one out of my top... oh, probably 100 movies.

[justalurkr.livejournal.com]

Do the adult hens in Chicken Run count? They were being very proactive about escaping the farm. It was very nearly a girl power movie until Mel Gibson dropped in.

[gategrrl.livejournal.com]

Ah, Chicken Run! There were a lot of hens in there talking to each other - I'd have to rewatch it, though to see how many conversations were in it that were NOT about a rooster.

I was thinking about Monster House, because there's a pseudo Girl Scout, and the Big Sister, but I think they only had one or two conversations, if that.

And there's another movie with several female characters called Over The Hedge. It was hysterical, but I'm not sure if the four female characters really talked to each other.

[justalurkr.livejournal.com]

I was appalled at how long it took me even to come up with Chicken Run. I realized that in order to come close to meeting Mo's standard, a movie pretty much has to have a female central character. Otherwise, all real conversations are with the male central character and most girl/girl convos are about him.

I'm racking my brains to remember if any of the women in the Harry Potter movies ever just talked to each other? Or the Star Wars franchise? I don't clearly recall Trinity from The Matrix having much to say to anyone of the female persuasion, and she was otherwise pretty empowered.

[jennixen.livejournal.com]

Very interesting, can I link to your entry on my blog?

[gategrrl.livejournal.com]

Of course!

[gategrrl.livejournal.com]

Hmm. The Matrix movies.. No, I don't remember Trinity having any kind of conversation with another woman. There was that thin washed out blonde on her ship (the one captained by Orpheus) and they might have talked over the table, but otherwise? No, all the action centered around Neo, all the talk.

It's strange. It's as if, even with a strong female character, in order to make the movie "successful", the female character can only talk mainly to the male characters, as if to keep her macho-ness visible. Or, more likely, it's a pattern that film writers aren't even aware they're writing.

Heck, if *I* wasn't aware of this, I'm not sure I would notice either, that the female character wasn't talking to another female character about nothing to do with main male character. Weird.