10 of my favorite movies that don't pass the Bechdel test

The Bechdel Test: The movie must have
1. Two women characters...
2. Who talk to each other...
3. About something other than a man.

Here we go:
1. Rushmore directed by Wes Anderson
Possibly my favorite movie. There are exactly 2 (named) women characters who never talk. The Royal Tennenbaums passes, Fantastic Mr. Fox & Darjeeling Limited fail.

2. Almost Famous written & directed by Cameron Crowe
A semi-autobiographical tale of the writer's adolescence following rock stars and writing for Rolling Stone. The "band-aids" talk to each other, about men.

3. Toy Story directed by John Lasseter
Andy's mom and Little Bo Peep are female, but they don't talk. Toy Story 3 passes!

4. The Shawshank Redemption written & directed by Frank Darabont
As it's mainly set in a men's prison, failing the test is understandable.

5. Superbad written by Seth Rogan & Evan Goldberg
The two named female characters don't really interact, until the end and we don't know what they are talking about.

6. Real Genius starring Val Kilmer & a bunch of people who never made another movie
This one pains me! There is a girl genius integral to the plot, but she never talks to any of the other 2 women, who only exist to bang the male geniuses.

8. The 40 Year Old Virgin written & directed by Judd Apatow, the king of sensitive feminist movie scripts
Women (other than the always brilliant Jane Lynch (playing a part originally written for a man!)) are flat, secondary characters, good for banging.

9. Ace Ventura starring Jim Carey in his oscar nominated role
You think that there are two women who talk to each other about something other than men in this movie, but nope! SPOILER ALERT: Lt. Einhorn is a man!

10. Indiana Jones Trilogy directed by Steven Spielberg
In the Indiana Jones trilogy (what fourth movie?!), there are 3 major female characters. One is a prissy prissy princess who screams, just beause she is covered by giant insects. One is a doctor, but, on the downside, a Nazi. One is kind of a bad ass, but she still ends up needing rescued. Poor showing, Steven Spielberg. I'll have to think twice about naming my first son Indiana.

This week in my life

In two days, I will be wearing a similar outfit, complete with silly gold hood:




















In six days, I will be wearing a swimsuit, sitting in a hot tub looking at this:















Hopefully, the snow will be melted enough for me to do some biking.

All women are REAL women

I was watching this video, "This is what a real woman looks like", and I found myself getting really annoyed. On some levels, the video has a great message. I think the media's incredibly narrow view of what women are "supposed" to look like is incredibly damaging. The diet industry makes billion dollars a year. Women are supposed to constantly care about what they look like (and spend lots of money to look acceptable). The average age of a girls first diet is 8! There's no way this is right.

However, I think the "real women" backlash against the media is also damaging. All women are real women. Short, tall; fat, skinny, curvy, flat...we're all women. A different narrow box of acceptability isn't any better than the previous one.

Models that have been photoshopped into un-reality: not real women.




















Super gorgeous super-models (even if they're skinny): Real Women



















Supreme Court Justice Nominee Elena Kagan: Real Woman


















Dottie Kamenshek, member of the All-American Girls Baseball League: Real Woman



















Kerri Walsh & Misty May-Treanor, multiple Olympic gold medalists and all around bad-asses: Real Women



















James Franco's Japanese Pillow: Not a Real Woman


















Any questions?