Sweden Launches Gender Rating for Movies -- How Many Hollywood Flicks Will Pass the Test?

[Gormy Cuss]

http://www.salon.com/2013/11/07/sweden_introduces_a_gender_rating_system_for_films/

November 8, 2013 |
Salon / By Katie McDonough

...The rule works as follows: To pass the Bechdel test, a movie must have at least two women in it who talk to each other about something besides a man. In order for a film to get an “A” rating under the new Swedish system, the movie must meet these requirements.

Seems simple enough, but as as Ellen Teile, director of an independent movie theater in Stockholm, told the Guardian, there are plenty of movies that don’t fit this low bar for inclusivity in representation.

“The entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, all Star Wars movies, The Social Network, Pulp Fiction and all but one of the Harry Potter movies fail this test,” she said, calling the experience of viewing films this way an “eye-opener.”

And “eye-opener” is pretty much the point. The new system isn’t meant to be a blunt instrument. It is not a censoring mechanism, it doesn’t impact what films get screened or who can see them, it simply makes gender bias visible rather than an accepted part of the media we consume.

It would be an interesting experiment in this country.

[msongs]

1. the obvious solution for critics of movies: make their own the way they want them :-) nt

[Gormy Cuss]

2. Or Hollywood could recognize an underserved market and develop more films with less gender bias.

There are indie filmmakers who make films with fully developed women characters. There are even the occasional big budget films with same.

What a rating system would do is raise awareness and thus provoke conversations in Hollywood.