Behind the Scenes

by Giulia Martinez-Brenner

The next time you watch a movie, try asking yourself these three questions:

Is there more than one woman character with a name?

Do these two women talk to each other?

And do they talk about something other than a man?

If you answer yes to all three, congratulations! You’re watching something that has passed all the steps to the Bechdel test. The Bechdel test can be applied to shows and books as well, of course, but the premise is the same: to what extent does this story give me a well-rounded female character? I would not go so far as to mention feminism, but does the plot at least attempt to humanise the women on the screen?

"the issue of diverse representation is not such a far-fetched concept anymore"

You may be surprised at just how many great, award-winning movies are not up to these standards. Or maybe this is just depressing old news. Some are more obvious than others, like alright, Shawshank Redemption was set entirely in an all men’s prison, what can you do. Then there’s The Avengers, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Whiplash – although there are multiple women, they never speak to each other. Others may have an interesting female character, but that is it, just one woman throughout the whole thing. This is the case for The Imitation Game for example, or, my personal heartbreak, Ratatouille. These are just a few blockbuster films that fail the test, but I dare you to search for more. Check your favorites and see.

The Bechdel test has been around since the 1980’s, proposed by the homonymous American cartoonist as a simplified criterion to judge the representation of gender diversity. Recently, other tests have emerged to question ethnic and racial diversity in Hollywood films, like the Shukla test or the DuVernay test. These both require similar conditions in which “African-Americans or other minorities have fully realized lives rather than serve as scenery in white stories.”

These little rules should not be taken as a set of strict binary requirements. They serve as a push for you to be critically attentive to who is presented to you and how, in the stories being shown on the big screen. These debates have become increasingly mainstream in recent years, and the issue of diverse representation is not such a far fetched concept anymore. However, representation cannot be based purely on presence on camera: we must expand our image to include who is behind it.

Casts have been growing progressively heterogeneous, albeit still not to satisfaction. Yet the number of women and people of color on the production side has remained stagnant, or even declined. Research shows that these groups are highly underrepresented in the roles of director, producer, writer, and cinematographer, and are given smaller budgets compared to their white male counterparts, regardless of previous experience. What does this say? Characters may be more diverse, but they are still created by and through the typical white male gaze. In a world already built upon these constructed representations of Others, tokenism in film is not just a lazy effort, but an extended form of symbolic violence in itself.

Hollywood is not the only industry guilty of presenting limited perspectives. Publishing and translation houses are also areas dominated by a very specific group of people. This is not to say that men can only write about men, women can only write about women, and people of color can only shape characters of their own ethnicity. The issue is not that there cannot be space for imagination, but that there is an incredible disproportion of who gets that creative space, a fact that cannot be ignored.

Stories matter, along with who gets to tell them.

Dearest Campus,

Sun at last! The quad is alive and you all look beautiful. I’m sure the spring break flew by, as it always does, and I hope you are all settling back in with a fresh mind and rested body. Read the section of articles about Ukraine and Russia or about the different feminist perspectives on the film and music industries. Elections are coming up so be sure to take the quiz about which student board you should run for, and of course, put off your readings by having a go at LogiCo’s sudokus and puzzles! (Also a quick disclaimer and open suggestion to Ukrainian students: if you feel like your point of view is missing from these pages, please do not hesitate to submit your own perspective. We would love to hear from you, as I am sure all of campus).

Finally, our next edition will be the much anticipated and much loved collaboration with Scope, the Scoperang! This year’s theme is bloom and we cannot wait to see the art, articles, and creative writing you come up with. As usual, send your submissions to boomerang@ucsa.nl and make sure to follow @theboomerang.ucsa for more information and updates!

Now go get that vitamin D and I hope you enjoy this issue.

Yours always, Giulia Martinez-Brenner Editor-in-Chief