Swedish movie mavens, ever mindful of gender-related sensitivities, are putting a new rating system in place for film-goers that alerts to bias against females.
Actually, the rating alerts to movies that don’t contain the bias — but the result is essentially the same. Movie-goers in the nation will soon know which movies are cleared for gender bias and which contain scenes that put women in lackluster lights, The Associated Press reported.
Movies that don’t have perceived gender bias will get an “A” on the Bechdel test scale — meaning that at least two main female characters discuss issues other than men in the movie, AP said.
That leaves out quite a bit in popular culture.
“The entire ’Lord of the Rings’ trilogy, all ’Star Wars’ movies, ’The Social Network,’ ’Pulp Fiction’ and all but one of the ’Harry Potter’ movies fail this test,” said Ellen Tejle, director of Bio Rio, a theater in Stockholm’s Sodermalm district.
The rating has nothing to do with film quality. Rather, it’s all about the female role.
The new system was sparked by the belief that movies hardly ever have plots that contain “a female superhero or a female professor or person who makes it through exciting challenges and masters them,” Miss Tejle told AP.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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