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The Bechdel Test, the Lesbian Litmus, and the Gage Gauge

7/27/2010

12 Comments

 
PictureDykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel
Lesbian cartoonist and brilliant graphic memoirist Alison Bechdel articulated what has come to be known  as the Bechdel Test. It's from her brilliant and long-running cartoon strip "Dykes to Watch Out For." Two lesbians are on their way to the movies, and one of them says, "I have this rule, see.... I only go to a movie if it satisfies three basic requirements. One, it has to have at least two women in it... who, two, talk to each other about, three, something besides a man."

There is actually a website, where folks can rate movies according to their ranking on the Bechdel Test.
 
Well, the recent release of a lesbian-themed Hollywood movie, The Kids Are All Right, has inspired me to propose a lesbian adjunct to the Bechdel Test. Let’s call it the Lesbian Litmus…


Okay, here goes... To pass the Lesbian Litmus, a film about lesbians must have:

1)  Butch parity.  For every lesbian femme character there is a lesbian butch. Not a transgender male. Not a butchy femme. A lesbian butch. This was an ongoing struggle for "The L-Word."

PictureGoldberg and Avery... windchime not pictured
2)    If there is lesbian sex, then it must be for and about lesbians. Not lesbian sex for straight men to get off on. No Windchime Treatment. This is named for Steven Spielberg’s notoriously homophobic treatment of Celie’s initiation into lesbian sex in his film adaptation of Alice Walker's dazzlingly lesbian and feminist and womanist novel The Color Purple.

In the book, of course, there is this amazing scene with mirrors, where the sophisticated Shug shows Celie her genitals, and the lesbian sex is framed as a healing alternative to both women’s experiences of violation by men. In Speilberg’s version, there are some chaste kisses on the cheek, and then, just as Celie moves in for the lips, the camera cuts away to hands being placed on shoulders... Oh, come on! Seriously? SHOULDERS?  But even that is too much for Spielberg, and the camera cuts away again to a tinkling little Japanese windchime. Fadeout. So now we can just imagine all the fragile, exotic, tinkling little sex that follows…  (Footnote: I remember reading somewhere that Tina Turner had been considered for the role of Shug instead of Margaret Avery. I have a feeling she would have ripped Spielberg a new one… as in “What’s windchimes got to do with it?”) 

But, as I was saying, lesbian sex for and about lesbians.

PictureThe Killing of Sister George... and yes, they're both adults

3)    No “all she needs is a good man.” (The Fox, The Kids Are All Right, The Children’s Hour, Chasing Amy, Kissing Jessica Stein) No “give me a baby” sex.  (French Twist)  And, help me if I’m forgetting any.

4)    No killing off of the lesbian to make it okay (Boys on the Side, The Fox, The Killing of Sister George, original ending of Maedchen in Uniform, Thelma and Louise... who can only justify their lesbian kiss with the fact they are going to be ruptured and shattered cadavers seconds after.) 

5) It shouldn't be necessary for the women to be drunk/high. The lesbianism shouldn't be accidental or dismissable because of having been drunk, but clearly chosen. (Claire of the Moon) (Thank you, Karen Escovitz!)

6) The lesbian sex scenes should not be outnumbered or outclassed by heterosex scenes (The Kids Are All Right)  (Thanks, again, Karen!)


7)    AND NO SEX SCENES WRITTEN OR DIRECTED BY SOME IDIOT WHO STILL CAN’T ACCEPT OR IMAGINE THAT WE DO JUST FINE WITHOUT A PENIS, WITHOUT MALE PORNOGRAPHY, WITHOUT WINDCHIMES, WITHOUT VAMPIRES, WITHOUT INEBRIATION, WITHOUT SUICIDE, AND ESPECIALLY WITHOUT PANDERING TO SOME INTERNALIZED MALE PORNOGRAPHIC GAZE. OKAY?

PictureGo Fish passes the Litmus but not the Gauge
So that’s my proposed “Lesbian Litmus.”

The Bechdel Test seems to eliminate about half of the big studio films. The Lesbian Litmus looks to me like it will take out about half of the lesbian films. The more assertive lesbians and feminists become the more rarified the cinematic atmosphere… 


And now I am going to suggest The Gage Gauge:

The lesbians who are in a primary relationship express an understanding that their intimacy poses a tremendous threat to male dominant institutions, and they derive both pleasure and energy from this understanding and, because of this, seek out opportunities to maximize the radical potential of their lesbianism.

Now, surely, somewhere there must be a lesbian film that ranks on the Gage Gauge…?  If not, may I suggest any number of Gage plays for future filmmaking projects? www.carolyngage.com

 

12 Comments
Kathy
7/27/2010 02:19:35 pm

I enjoyed this post so much--it's joyful in the midst of all the destruction around us.
Hey, there already is at lease one Gage film, Ugly Ducklings (wonderful)! I have no doubt there will be more.

Reply
Daña Alder
7/27/2010 02:20:08 pm

Terrific system, Carolyn. I think you're definitely on to something.

Having heard the basics about TKAAR, I was most skeptical about all of the positive reviews I was reading, and I'm glad womyn whose sensibilities I trust are coming out with some razor-like commentary. Thanks!

Reply
Ready2Agitate
7/27/2010 04:46:28 pm

Hmmm, I guess #5 eliminates "High Art," Lisa Cholodenko's 1998 film, too.

Great post!

Reply
Kathy
7/28/2010 01:01:04 am

Antonia's Line is eliminated--there isn't a butch.

Reply
qc
7/28/2010 02:38:56 am

Hummm...what about the Sarah Waters movie Adaptation of her novel Tipping the Velvet? Nan has some unhealthy relationships in there, but also finds true happiness with an fabulous out politically active lesbian.

1. Butch Parity (Not represented in a main character but plenty of butches at the lesbian "saloon" )

2. Lesbian sex that is playful and while there are some cut-aways, you still get the picture.

3 All she needs is a good man. Well, Kitty falls into this, but she also comes off as a wretched person for doing this and comes crawling back to Nan at the end

4 No killing off

5 Plenty of sober lovin

6 No hetro sex (that I can remember. I may have blocked these out though, I tend to do that) Oooh, there is that unsavory bit about Nan dressing as a boy to earn a living on the street. Humm...yeah that was gross.

7 Directed by a guy (wah wah), Geoff Sax. Don't know much about him though. Anyone?

Dunno, I could be missing stuff too. Its been awhile since I've seen it. What do you all think?

p.s. Carolyn. I think a Joan of Arc screenplay is a must! :-)

Reply
Carolyn Gage link
7/28/2010 03:12:58 am

Hmm... Tipping the Velvet... I think that when the lesbian heroine is prostituted, or raped... well... again, it's that "neutralization" or "heterosexist assurance" that seems to be so obligatory. So, in my version of the Lesbian Litmus, the prostituting herself, pretending to be an (underage???) male to have oral sex with disgusting johns for money... Well, that's a big old Lesbian Movie Fail for me. The fact that it is filmed to appear comedic, instead of traumatic, is a minus, not a plus for me. And of course the persistent agenda of normalizing male child prostitution and/or sex... which was such a part of the lives of folks like Wilde, Tennessee Williams, Alan Ginsberg, Christopher Marlowe, Walt WHitman, etc. etc...

Reply
qc
7/28/2010 07:12:05 am

Fair enough. Synapse Received!

Reply
Karen Snider
7/29/2010 07:08:34 am

THANK YOU! You said it .

Reply
Xochitl
8/24/2010 05:32:18 am

Hello to all.
Do love this post - so very true.
So how about "Everything Relative"?

Reply
Laura C.
10/3/2010 08:05:03 am

I'll certainly put the Gage Guage to use (though I'll still go see some movies that fail it, or I'll rarely get to see anything). This caused me to remember how desperate we were for lesbo content back when Claire of the Moon opened. A local organization chartered a bus for a bunch of women to travel the 3-4 hours to the nearest town showing it (a town smaller than the one we lived in), lousy reviews notwithstanding. (I've still never seen it.) Then, when Go Fish opened, it got pretty huge audiences for awhile. Not a great movie, but it felt a little like manna from heaven back then.

And, btw, when is someone (HBO?) going to make a series out of DTWOF?

Reply
wizard88 link
1/8/2013 12:21:49 pm

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Reply
Etas Carria
4/9/2014 05:58:05 am

Together the Bechdel Test and the Gage Test preclude all further "lesbian" sex scenes in mainstream movies. And that's just fine by me.

Reply



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