Have you heard of the Bechdel Test created by Alison Bechdel in 1985 to check for sexism in movies? The Bechdel Test names the following three criteria for a movie: (1) it has to have at least two women in it, who (2) who talk to each other, about (3) something besides a man.
So here’s my version for kids’ movies: The criteria is it has to have (1) at least two females who are friends (2) who go on an adventure (3) and don’t wear revealing clothing
What do you think?
To clarify given your comments: Kiki and the mom figure are friends, Ponyo and the mom figure are friends as well.
Before you worry over the films with token “feisty” female characters that won’t make the cut, think about how easy it is for so many movies starring males to sail through this challenging criteria.
In my post about “Tom and Jerry,” I wrote about the exclusion and stereotyping of female characters. I didn’t write about the extreme violence in the cartoon. If I blogged about other animated male duos who relentlessly, brutally attack each other– Sylvester and Tweetie or Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd– I’d also complain not about the violence, but that the girls have gone missing as well. In fact, on my blog that rates kids’ media on how appropriate it is, I’ve hardly written about violence at all. Why?
I’m no fan of tons of blood and gore, but I also believe that violence is a crucial part of fantasy play. I don’t take the violence in fairy tales, myths, or stories literally. That is, I think of the violence in narratives mostly as a metaphor. For example, you could look at the story of David and Goliath as primarily a violent one (along with many stories in the Bible.) David kills Goliath. Or you can look at as story about the little guy going after the big one and winning: Erin Brockovitch taking on a corrupt power company. We all look at the story that way, right? So much so that the characters have become part of our language when we describe contemporary battles.
What happens when that language leave girls out?
Everyone slays dragons. In myths, in our dreams, in movies, we see it happen visually and literally on huge scales. In our own lives, we do it every day, in ways that are smaller and less dramatic, but can seem enormous in the moment: getting a project in on deadline, winning a debate, or organizing a messy closet.
I also think the violence in narratives provide useful metaphors and imagery for kids to experience emotions in a healthy way. Little kids live dramatic lives. They don’t get to go to a movie and they feel like their whole world is caving in. Narratives are a safe way to practice experiencing intense emotions: they actually see a world cave in.
Just in case you’re missing my point: I’m not advocating for violence where the males are always the heroes and the females are the victims. Violence shown as men hurting women in kids’ media, the way it is in the adult world of “entertainment,” is not my goal. I’d like to see female heroes acting bravely. If we had more female heroes, it wouldn’t be weird to show female victims as well.
“Violent play is not by definition bad or harmful for kids. Any child shrink worth her sand table will tell you it can help them learn about impulse control, work out the difference between fantasy and reality, and cope with fear….Children of both sexes crave larger than life heroes. They need fantasy. They also, it seems, need a certain amount of violent play…something that allows them to triumph in their own way over this thing we call death, to work out their day-to-day frustrations; to feel large, powerful, and safe.”
Today I’m 43. Last year on my birthday, I wrote about the cool surprise of my 40s being completely awesome so far. That continues to be true.
Here’s just one example relevant to this blog: in my twenties, I don’t think I would’ve been able to handle all the negative comments I get in reaction to a lot of the stuff I write. People make so many personal attacks that have nothing to do with my argument, it would’ve driven me crazy. There’s an option on my SFGate blog not to accept comments, and I would’ve probably used that if I blogged at all.
For many years, I worked in talk radio, which in some ways, I think, was a precedent to the internet as far as the spontaneity, anonymity, and accessibility. I was used to hearing people say horrible things, just not to me. Slight difference. I was the producer, but it still got me really upset. Especially when they called the host who I worked for “fat.” When someone lost a heated argument, invariably, they would shout, “You fat fuck!” and hang up. “How do you handle it?” I asked. The host, Bernie Ward, laughed, shrugged, and said, “I know when they get to that, they have nothing else to say.”
Here’s what I’ve learned in my old age: Think of the worst, most horrible thing you can ever imagine someone saying to you. Got it? If you want to write or speak publicly, that will be said. Count on it. Multiple times. In ways you never imagined. But guess what? It doesn’t matter. And once you experience that and survive it, it’s kind of amazing and liberating. I wish I hadn’t spent so much time worrying about what other people might think or say. What a huge waste of time.
I hope women in their twenties are smarter than I was and know that. But in case you don’t, if you are reading this, please write. I hope you write novels or screenplays or blog or whatever. The sooner you start, the better for us. The world needs your stories. Desperately. And open an IRA. Right now. Don’t drink so much. Quit smoking. Finally, calm down– even cranky, prickly you will meet the man of your dreams.
This great review from Estella’s Revenge (love that blog title) on the anthology Sugar in My Bowl (Ecco 2011) and my short story “Light Me Up.” She writes:
I downloaded it, I read it on my new Nook in two days flat (over the holidays!!!), and the rest is history. Good history…
In fact, the first story that comes to mind when I think of this collection is Margot Magowan’s “Light Me Up.” Juliet is a new mother, married to Henry, and struggling with her sexuality in light of being a new mom. She feels ugly, used up, exhausted, confused, hormonal, empowered, embittered, and a host of other swirling emotions. The confusion in this story and the struggle between the two main characters rang so true to life, I was quick to start highlighting. However, I think it was ultimately Juliet’s mental change of attitude about sex that really spoke volumes in this story.
‘There were other differences I noticed in myself. Sex, or even just blatant sexuality, on TV disgusted me–watching reality shows’ horny drunks or all those women shaking their asses in videos. Previously, even when I didn’t like something that was on, I often got sucked in, fascinated, curious, analyzing, trying to figure it all out. Now it was just gross. ‘
I was really pulling for Juliet as she worked through her feelings post-baby and I felt really sorry for her at times, triumphant for her at others. Magowan did a good job injecting a lot of meaning and eliciting an emotional response with the content of this story.
I started Reel Girl on December 27, 2009 in a post Christmas pink haze. It was my first holiday season with three daughters, my youngest child was nine months old. I was amazed by how gendered all their Christmas presents were. Truly amazed. Even the little one had a stack of all pink toys and clothing. But it was Polly Pocket who drove me to blog. Those teeny-weeny clothes. I can’t even deal with organizing all the clothing for my own kids, not to mention Polly’s ugly, shiny outfits. It wasn’t just Polly, of course. So many toys given to my kids had to do with getting dressed: magnetic dress dolls, paper doll cut out coloring books, Barbie dolls, on and on and on. Talk about training your daughters to be obsessed with clothing and appearance.
In the two years that I’ve been blogging and paying a lot of attention to this issue, have we made progress limiting the ‘genderfication’ of childhood? (I’m using ‘genderfication’ instead of ‘gendering’ to highlight the mass-market, artificial drive to segregate kids)
Movies and TV seem worse than ever. Girls are half our kid population but show up only as a tiny minority on the big and small screens. In 2010, Disney switched the title of “Rapunzel” to “Tangled” and announced it would make no more princess movies. Who cares, right? Princesses suck. But the complex problem is, tragically, if a girl character gets top billing in a film at all, chances are she’s a princess. It’s kind of like if you want to win a Miss America college scholarship, first you’ve got to parade around in your bathing suit. By saying no more princesses, what Disney was really saying was: coming soon, even fewer girl stars! At that time, in response to Disney’s blatant sexism of switching a title to hide a girl and publicly announcing that decision, hardly a parent made a peep.
And toys? Also, only worse. To me, the new Legos for girls that just went on the market hit an all time low in the genderfication of childhood.
But on the positive side, parents are getting pissed off. Hundreds (can I say thousands yet?) are going to Lego’s Facebook page and complaining.
There’s other evidence parents have had enough. Early this year, Peggy Orenstein’s Cinderella Ate My Daughter came out and became a best-seller. Melissa Wardy’s Pigtail Pals, a company aimed at creating empowering clothing for girls, grew enormously, in part when posts Wardy wrote about JCPenney’s sexist T shirt “I’m too pretty to do my homework so my brother did it for me” went viral. JCPenney pulled the shirt.
In two years, Reel Girl has grown as well. Reel Girl posts have been featured, written about, or linked to major sites around the web including The Week (best opinion a couple times), Jezebel, Blogher (Spotlight Blogger), Forbes.com, Wall Street Journal, Adweek, Ms., Common Sense Media, and many more. Reel Girl is also cross posted on SFGate.
This summer Pixar is coming out with Brave, the animation studio’s first film ever to star a female protagonist. It’s kind of unbelievable that we’ve had to wait this long for one girl, but I’m excited to see her. I hope people go in droves and take their sons as well. This whole issue is really about the parents, and I’m happy they’re taking more action.
But there is a kid who is really pissed off and telling the world about it herself. Her name is Riley and the youtube video showing her smart observations on the gendered aisles, toys, and colors forced on kids is going viral as I post this. If you haven’t seen it yet, you can watch it here. It’s awesome.
And finally some exciting news around here: my husband and I are writing a Middle Grade book inspired by a story he started telling our daughters. It’s a fantasy adventure. Here’s one sentence about it: “Legend of Emery: TheBattle for the Sather Stone is the story of how Nessa, a Frake, and Posey, a Fairy, overcome a history of mutual prejudice to become great friends, working together to stop a war by recovering the stolen Sather stone, the source of all magic, and returning it to its rightful owner, the Fairy Queen Arabel.”
Here’s to hoping we take many more giant steps forward in 2012.
These are questions considered in Reel Girl’s rating system when deciding how appropriate a movie is for kids. Reel Girl rates kids media with 1 – 3 S’s for Stereotyping and 1 – 3 G’s for Girlpower. Obviously the male dominated MPAA has different standards.
Is the movie titled for a male star?
Is the movie centered around the quest of a male?
Are the females in the movie helping the male achieve his goal?
Which character goes through a transition?
What is the ratio of males to females? Main roles? Crowd scenes?
What are the females wearing? Does their clothing expose belly buttons and other body parts?
How many lines do the female characters have?
How many of the females’ lines have to do with what they’re wearing, what they look like, romantic relationships, or shopping?
How many of the males refer to the females only in reference to romance and how they look?
How do the females in the movie interact with each other? Do they interact at all?
How are female friendships depicted in the movie? Are there any?
Is a female character rescued by a male character?
Does a female character make a rescue?
What heroic acts or acts of bravery do the female characters perform?
I wasn’t sure what the point was. I’m 42 years old. I didn’t get Facebook. Why would I want people to know what I’m doing all the time? It seemed like an invasion of privacy. I used to get paid for writing. Now everyone is an opinion writer and most people do it for free. I resented that.
I started blogging when someone asked me for help starting a blog. She asked me for advice because I’m an opinion writer, but I knew nothing about blogging. So I started a blog to learn how to do it to see if I could give her some tips. Immediately, I found blogging gratifying. You feel like you have something to say, you say it, and then you put it out to the world. It’s easy, its free, and anyone can do it. No pitching editors. The gatekeepers are gone. That’s pretty cool in some ways. It solves the issue that is frustrating to so many writers as far as distribution. You need to communicate to someone. Even if no one reads what you wrote, putting it out there is key.
Of course, that has a negative side. Blogging can be messy, sloppy, spontaneous. I used to have editors. And the commenters, don’t get me started. Anonymity breeds thoughtlessness. Especially, it seems, when unnamed commenters respond to women who blog.
But everyone is writing now, and that’s good. Instead of making a phone call, people send emails or texts. And again, the negative side is people may be communicating less directly, hiding behind technology. But it is kind of cool that everyone is writing– on Facebook, Twitter etc. Also, I find Twitter and FB develop some writing skills. You have to be so economical with your words. That’s a useful practice for any writer.
Then there’s the whole ChapStick experience. ChapStick took down its sexist ad because of the power of social media. If not for social media, that ad would be everywhere right now. Social media got JCPenney to stop selling in sexist T shirt. FB and Twitter facilitate political and social movements from the revolution in Egypt to Occupy. Bank of America and Wells Fargo got rid of their new, ridiculous fees in part because customers used social media to express mass distaste. As with Netflix. Consumers have more power so big business has less.
Now I like Facebook. I love keeping in touch with my friends and relatives, seeing photos and getting updates. It’s also great to use FB to connect with people who care about the same issues that I do.
I still need to make some money though.
What do you think? Has social media improved your life? Do you feel more connected or more isolated? Does it make the world a better place?
When I was a kid, people used to say “life begins at 40.” I thought that was just BS old people said to make themselves feel better. But it’s true. That is if you haven’t waited until 40 to start having children like many women these days. I work with a woman who’s five years older than me and has a 12 year old.
My children were raised and gone off to college by the time I was 45 . Empty nest? It’s pure heaven folks. I do what I want, when I want and if I want to. My time is my own, my life is my own, I did everything I signed up for and now I can be as selfish and self indulgent as I want. I watch what I want on tv and drink beer and walk my dogs and there’s an old guy living in the basement who loves his leather lazy-boy.
I don’t even miss the leering. I thought I would miss the power of youth and looks but I don’t. It’s a relief to be free of all the crap that goes along with being objectified. It’s very relaxing not to worry about looking at a man in the eyes more than two seconds and having them proceed to think I just lit up a billboard across my head that said “eff me.”
I look at young mothers in the grocery store with a couple of fussy children and I see that look and I remember, and the hair on the back of my neck stands up.
Please visit it here, click “like” and suggest to your friends.
But here are some questions:
What is the point of this page? If I have my blog and my own FB page, why this? Do I do daily posts?
And…do you like Reel Girl and one word or two? I like one because its sounds kind of like a superhero, but I like the way just the words look better as two, and its harder to find in a search if its one word.
Let me know your success and failure stories with FB, Twitter etc which I am not sure I am making full use of either. What do people like on Twitter? I usually just post my blogs…
Do you think the blog address should just be www.reelgirl.com? or www.margotmagowan.com?
Critics love the new book Sugar In My Bowl. The anthology came out this summer, is edited by Erica Jong, and includes my short story “Light Me Up.” If you haven’t gotten your copy yet, you can order it here.
Here are some blurbs:
“[A] fierce, fearless collection.”
— More Magazine
“The women of this collection make the case that good sex is never exclusively about the act, but also about how you approach it.”
— NPR
“Abundant with affairs, marriages, motherhood and our sexual sense of mortality it is a thoughtful read, a perfect aperitif on a summer evening. The stories penetrate a secret space in our brains we so often neglect: our sense of sexuality.”
— Forbes
“Jong has crafted candid accounts of love and passion from renowned female writers into a sensual and sensitive read.”
— Interview“[Sugar in My Bowl] runs the gamut from pornographic and hilarious to ironic and poignant. The result is a fun, quick, beach read, requiring as much or as little intellectual energy as the reader chooses to invest.”
— Chicago Sun-Times“You can take these women seriously, laugh, squirm, and put hand over mouth at their weird, exciting, uncomfortable, joyous tales of ardor, while still admiring the agility of their prose.”
— The Daily“Jong partners with 28 collaborators to create this fierce and refreshingly frank collection of personal essays, short fiction and cartoons celebrating female desire…A smart, scrumptiously sexy romp of a read.”
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“In this no-holds-barred collection of essays by ‘real women’ about ‘real sex,’ Jong has assembled an eclectic group of authors. [Sugar in My Bowl] is at its most profound when truth illuminates sex as a force in which these women found empowerment.”
— Publishers Weekly
“Jong cast a broad net to bring together women writing about sex. The resulting anthology attests the wide range of female sexual experience.”
— Booklist
“Sugar in My Bowl is proof positive that women can write seriously about sex and live to tell. It represents a remarkable smorgasbord of experience and perspective, and there’s a dish here for everyone.”
— Shelf Awareness
“These pieces honestly and thoughtfully explore sex and its role in our society from a woman’s perspective, from its place in youth to the golden years….with Sugar in My Bowl Jong has curated a consistently eye-opening and thoroughly readable volume.”
— LargeHearted Boy Blog
“The enticing, thoughtful Sugar in My Bowl proves to be a powerful exploration of women’s relationship to sex.”
— Entertainment Realm
“This book is a Thanksgiving dinner in which each story is a dish more scrumptious, more touchingly homemade than the last. All are so very different, but together they comprise a joyous feast: [an] examination-cum-celebration of female sex and sexuality. A must-read.”
— Gender Across Borders
“The passion, tragedy, and hope—offered by courageous women who express raw feelings that society tends to silence—will resonate.”
— Library Journal
“A refreshing and new contribution to literature about women’s sex lives.”
— HerCircleEzine.com
