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In “A Room of One’s Own,” Virginia Woolf’s 1929 essay on women in literature, Woolf notes that the sentence “Chloe liked Olivia,” found in Mary Carmichael’s novel Life’s Adventure, deviates greatly from all female relationships previously found in literature. “It struck me,” Woolf writes, “how immense a change was there. Chloe liked Olivia perhaps for the first time in literature.”
The Bechdel Test
It was clear to Woolf that all the women in literature up until then had almost exclusively been portrayed “in their relation to men.” In 1985, Alison Bechdel made a similar observation in her comic strip, Dykes to Watch Out For. In the comic, a character tells another character that she will only watch a movie if it meets three requirements:
- There are at least two women in it,
- who talk to one another,
- about something besides men or relationships with men.
This test has been dubbed “The Bechdel Test” and is now used by feminist social commentators, critics, sociologists and other feminists who analyze popular culture through a lens of feminist-friendly, culturally aware media literacy.
Unfortunately, both the Bechdel Test and Woolf’s essay are more familiar to college students and adult critics than teenagers and pre-teens who are just as (if not more) exposed to film, movies and books that do not accurately depict the depth, intelligences and complexities of their female characters. A set of discussion points based on the tenets of feminist analysis is an important tool when encouraging feminist awareness and media literacy in younger generations.
Twilight & Hannah Montana: Today’s Female Characters
While Virginia Woolf was referring to well-known female characters in literature, including Cleopatra and Octavia in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, today’s youth are more likely to be exposed to female characters in contemporary books, movies and television shows.
Three female characters known by most young Americans today are Hannah Montana, the protagonist of a Disney channel television show and movie; Bella Swan, the heroine of the Twilight books and movies; and Hermione Granger, the lone girl in Harry Potter’s trio of main characters
Certain fictional women and other female characters are ubiquitous in today’s pop culture, and even young people who have not read the Twilight books or watched Hannah Montana are aware of them. While it is important to include a discussion of female characters in classic literature young people are exposed to in school, contemporary and popular depictions of women should be the focus of feminist analysis for young people.
Beyond the Bechdel Test: Questions to Spark Feminist Critique
The questions raised by the Bechdel Test are a good place to start, sparking awareness of feminist issues and problematic depictions of women in fiction, television and film, but teaching media literacy through a feminist lens requires deeper investigation. Youth should be encouraged to investigate ways that visual, verbal, sexual and racial motifs, as well as other relevant content, contribute to the construction of fictionalized females. Questions to consider include:
- What is most important to this character?
- What role do other female characters play in her story? Male characters?
- Is the story driven by her wishes and decisions? If not, who is in charge?
- How do other characters react to this character? What guides her interactions with other characters?
- Is the main character’s gender or sexuality important to the story? How might this story be different if the main character was male or of a different gender expression? How might it be different if the main character remained female but adhered to different standards of beauty?
- What stereotypes of gender are present or absent in the portrayal of this character? How realistic are her world and relationships?
- How similar are we to the characters in the story? What might our lives look like if we lived in their world? Do they accurately represent anyone we know?
But It's Not Real: Countering Apathy & Resistance
Many young people are reluctant to challenge the ideas that comprise the stories and characters they enjoy. “It’s just for fun,” they say, “it’s not meant to be realistic.” It is important to clarify that insisting that fiction accurately reflect reality is not the point of a feminist critique. Instead, it is better to counter arguments against media literacy with questions like these:
- What ideas about women are being drawn from to create these characters? Where do these ideas come from? Are they stereotypes, or do they allow for a variety of expressions of femininity?
- If someone from an alien planet were to watch these movies or read these books, what would they learn about sex and gender? How would this knowledge teach them to treat women or think about gender, sex and relationships?
- If a woman were to model her self-image, behavior and wishes based on this female character, do we think she would be satisfied and independent? Would we like to be around her?
- Is it possible to create an entertaining female character without relying on damaging stereotypes? Are there any examples of empowered females we find enjoyable to watch or read about?
Woolf made her observation in the 1920s. In 1985, Bechdel questioned gender-related themes in cinema. In 2007, a Warner Bros. executive reportedly claimed that the studio would no longer produce movies with female leads. Stereotyped or invisible female characters remain a staple of film, television and books today, even in markets aimed at female viewers. Teaching young consumers of contemporary media to question the ideas put forth by this media is an important step toward an understanding of gendered stereotypes and an increase in media literacy.
Readers interested in teaching feminist media literacy to youth might also enjoy Feminist Abusting: Media Literacy Workshops for Youth
References:
Billington, Alex. "Warner Brothers President Says No More Female Lead Characters!" FirstShowing.net. October 8, 2007.
Sciretta, Peter. "The Bechdel Test." SlashFilm.com. May 26, 2010.
Woolf, Virginia. "A Room of One's Own." Accessed through the eBooks library at the University of Adelaide.
Lisa Dodge - I'm a college student studying creative writing in Baltimore, Maryland, where I serve as editor in chief of our lit mag, work as a peer ...
