The Bechdel test for Women in Movies - it takes about 2 min and fascinated and enlightened me

[Moonwalk]

34. It's not a bad test and here is WHY there must be two women...

...because if there is only one then she ends up standing for all women. Just like if there's one black man in a movie he ends up standing for all blacks. It doesn't matter if she's kick-ass, just as it doesn't matter if the black-man is cool, the fact that the film is totally male but for that woman, or totally white but for that black man makes them into a symbol for all their gender/race rather than into a character.

We view men (white men) as human beings. Meaning they can have all the human characteristics of the human rainbow--they can be petty, generous, mean, kind, brave, cowardly, smart, stupid. But if you watched a movie with only one man in it, or only one white person in it, you'd be more sensitive to how they were portrayed. You'd ask, "Why is the only man in the movie not smart?" or "Why does he have to be an asshole?" Suddenly, that one man wouldn't be a human being, a character, he'd be a symbol of the male gender.

As for speaking to each other, if the women only talk to men, it implies that men are more important--that women (especially those kick-ass women) see men as their equals, but not other women (the non-kick ass women usually). If they talk to each other, then both women edge into being characters (human beings) rather than symbols (kick-ass woman/non-kick-ass woman), and if they talk about things other than men, then they're nearly on par with all those male characters who talk to each other about things other than women. It's a matter of equality. Do the women get to talk to each other like the men get to talk to each other?

When you imply that all that matters is there be a strong female lead, what you're really saying is that we should be happy with a token gesture rather than the real thing. The real thing is a well-integrated movie that features both genders in many roles, and all of them speaking to each other as they would in real life. Why should a single Catwoman be enough? You offer a "be happy with what you've got" scenario. That's like telling a person struggling on minimum wage that they should be happy they got a job and not strike for higher pay.

No. Sorry. I want more.