http://thehathorlegacy.com/why-film-schools-teach-screenwriters-not-to-pass-the-bechdel-test/

I don't know why this happens. I don't think that most USAians today have this attitude. You'd think Hollywood "creative" types would be more open-minded.

What I *think* is that it's the monkeys and the banana.
http://safetycenter.navy.mil/articles/a-m/monkeys.htm

Basically - forty years ago, if you made a movie where strong women characters held a conversation, the movie would tank. Some brainy jr. exec probably figured this out and it made his career.

So he taught his staff.
And when they became execs, they taught their staffs
etc.

But who knows.

Every single female lead film I have liked and bothered to discuss on this forum has been disliked by the males here.

So discussing this is fruitless.  Everyone will just say that the movies suck it has nothing to do with sexism and that's that.

Have a nice day.

What was wrong with Alien, Aliens, Aliens 3?

So I married an Axe murderer - also good.

Yes, I'd guess everyone grows up watching certain types of films/videos, which include things like being a stooge on camera, "fictitious violence" which has to do with people's realities as well, wars, spooky themes (suspense/terror) for the teenagers in us...

I guess part of the problem with women's likes in terms of films/videos is that things tend to be stray from people's realities, even if it plays to the movies strengths of making impossible things possible. For example, a film/movie that includes lots of women who aren't particularly related to each other, all interacting in the same scenes as if they were indeed friends from childhood/family, and with no man in sight at times. Men are supposed to watch such things and enjoy it? :-) Since when did men learn to watch unrelated women develop some dramas and to keep it up with it? Even soap operas which target women more than men seem rather boring, with long developing dramas... Imagine taking several months to watch an entire soap opera. Such is the life of many women.

"Not supposed to talk to each other unless it's about men"

Does "Thelma & Louise" pass this test?

But the only interesting stuff (straight) women talk about *is* men.

What they talk about when they talk about love is diluted regurgitation of some man's story.

http://alisonbechdel.blogspot.com/2005/08/rule.html

Here's how the "Bechtel Test" originated.  It's from the comic strip "Dykes to Watch Out For".

Monster, with Charlize Theron and Christina Ricci, passes the test.

The last thing I want to do is score feminist brownie points here, but if I had to take a random selection of the population to keep company with, I'd much rather they were all women than men.

The average man can't talk about anything at length besides cars, sports, and bitches.  The average woman can usually, barely, talk about something abstract.  Maybe they've even read books!

Movies don't really reflect this part of reality though.  But who goes to a movie to find reality anyway?

> if I had to take a random selection of the population to keep company with, I'd much rather they were all women than men.

Distribution bias. If I had to hire a mathematician it'd more likely be end up being a man. But a CFO or a controller? A woman. (And on the low end, if I had to hire an idiot, men's magazines is the place to advertise.)

> if I had to take a random selection of the population to keep company with, I'd much rather they were all women than men.

I find that when I am trying to talk with men, it almost always turns into some sort of contest. Working with guys, it takes about 2 years to get past the contest stage to where working as a team is possible.

"Huit Femmes":

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0283832/

Ohhhhh, wait -