Features
issue 19
A Song of Ice and Fire:
½
Bechdel Test: Pass Mako Mori Test: Pass
The books of A Song of Ice and Fire are pretty feminist. There are multiple Point of View female characters (Cat, Sansa, Daenerys, etc.) While some do fit into established stereotypes for women characters (e.g. Ayra the tomboy, Cersei the evil queen), the characters all go beyond this two-dimensional level (e.g. the tomboy Arya still has her “songs” of Nymeria the warrior Queen).
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Sherlock: ½
Bechdel Test Pass: Occasionally Mako Mori Test: Fail The only very developed female character in Sherlock is Irene Adler, who is a lesbian, but is heterosexualised so that she can fall in love with Sherlock and then be rescued by him. Irene also fits into the stereotype of the femme fatale (as does Kitty Riley). Sherlock’s attitude towards women is degrading and comments regarding the “weaker sex” are rampant . While Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is, again, a product of his time, the continuing celebration of Sherlock’s male genius, masculinity and rationality consistently relegates female characters to lesser beings.
Game of Thrones: Bechdel Test: Pass Mako Mori Test: Pass
The tests may be the same but the TV show is antifeminist. Female bodies are continuously objectified, often with sexualised rape. Consensual sex scenes (e.g. with Jaime and Cersei in Baelor’s Sept) are changed into rapes for shock value, but fail to be treated like rapes (for instance, there was no long term emotional damage from the rape in Baelor’s Sept). Rape is used for “character development” and “empowerment” for Sansa, who is raped so that she can potentially turn into a revenge-filled “Strong Female Character”. Writers also turned some female characters into twodimensional stereotypes (e.g. Brienne is changed into a “Strong Female Character”) and used them for male character development (e.g. Ros being killed off to emphasise Joffrey’s madness).
Lord of the Rings: ½ (Movies:
)
Bechdel test: Fail Mako Mori Test: Pass The Lord of the Rings is sadly a product of its time. In the books, the only major female character is Eowyn. Now Eowyn is pretty kick-ass, right? In the books, she is constantly objectified as beautifully fragile and her fighting brilliance is portrayed as an unnatural state caused by extraordinary circumstances. In the end, she gives it all up for the more traditionally female roles of wife and healer. And Arwen only appears at the end of the books to marry Aragorn. The movies do alleviate the sexism of the books by giving Eowyn a greater part (although she still has to be saved by Aragorn at the end), and expanding Arwen’s character, proving that something can be done to update dated books for film or TV.
Harry Potter:
½
Bechdel test: Pass Mako Mori Test: Pass Harry Potter lacks most anti-feminist tropes and has many female characters who are not Strong Female Characters such as Hermione, Luna and Ginny. The gender ratio is not equal but higher than most. Individual problems occur such as Tonks becoming boring when she gets married and Cho Chang fitting into the stereotype of girls crying over guys.
Star Trek (mostly the new movies): Bechdel Test: Sometimes Mako Mori Test: Occasionally
Lieutenant Uhura is the only major female character in the 2009 Star Trek reboot and her function is as a love interest for Kirk and Spock. Kirk continuously harasses Uhura in Star Trek after she tells him within a minute of meeting him that she’s not interested. In fact, we have no evidence in either Star Trek, or its sequel, Into Darkness, that Kirk thinks of women as anything other than sex objects. The only other major female character in Into Darkness, Dr. Carol Marcus, undresses in front of Kirk and is rescued by male characters. Star Trek is one of those series that has actually managed to get more sexist over time (like the Jurassic Park franchise). Kirk was more feminist in the original series, in the 1960s version of the show when one male crew members remarks that “a woman just walked past”, Kirk points out that she’s a crew member. The original series also had more female characters.
editor@salient.org.nz