There are lots of movies that feature great relationships between men. There are several movies with interesting roles for women. But how many movies out there feature multiple major female characters who interact with each other? That is the question the Bechdel Test for Women in Film tries to answer.

The Bechdel Test, named after cartoonist and graphic novel artist Alison Bechdel, attempts to test whether women have a meaningful presence in a movie.97 It does so by asking three questions:

Are there two or more women who have names in the movie? Do they talk to each other? Do they talk to each other about something other than a man? Not surprisingly, male-centric movies, such as 1917, Ford v Ferrari, and Ad Astra, do not pass. Movies focusing on the activities of multiple women, such as Hidden Figures, The Farewell, and the Harley Quinn comic book-based Birds of Prey, clearly do pass. But as media critic Anita Sarkeesian points out, some not-so-obvious fails include

The original Shrek The Big Lebowski Slumdog Millionaire And even The Princess Bride Remember, the Bechdel Test does not judge the quality of the movie or whether it treats women with respect. It only requires that the movie have two or more women who talk to each other about something other than a man.

Oddly enough, even in the most female-centric moviesthe Disney princess filmsmost of the dialog goes to male characters. While female characters dominate the dialog in classic Disney princess films like the original animated Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, the princess movies from the 1980s and 1990s are a different story. Male characters have 68 percent of the dialog in The Little Mermaid, 71 percent in Beauty and the Beast, and 76 percent in Pocahontas. (Do not even think about Aladdin, where 90 percent of the lines go to male characters.)98

What is the Bechdel test and what is the goal of the test? Apply the Bechdel Test to a recent movie you've seen and explain whether or not the movie passes the test.