First Advisor

Lauren Frank

Date of Award

5-23-2019

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Communication Studies and University Honors

Department

Communication

Subjects

Alison Bechdel (1960- ) -- Criticism and interpretation, Sex role in motion pictures, Teen films, Feminism, Objectification (Social psychology) in mass media, Women in motion pictures, Sexism in motion pictures

DOI

10.15760/honors.731

Abstract

This paper examines the Bechdel Test and its accuracy in measuring the progressiveness of films. The Bechdel Test is a set of parameters that are used to measure a film's representation of women; for a film to pass the Bechdel Test, two named women must talk to each other about something other than a man. In the United States, 40% of films still fail this test. The representation of women in film, especially teenage girls, creates a negative stereotype; it shows that they are aggressive and only care about their male love interests. The experiment in this paper compares two different movie scenes, one passing the test and one not, to measure whether perceived progressiveness, acceptability, portrayal of sex in media, sex roles, and which sex wrote the movie differ in either of the scenes. The scenes come from two different teen romance movies, both Netflix Originals. The paper critiques the Bechdel Test and the creation of new tests to show the disparity of gender in movies.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/28857

Download

Share

COinS