The Bechdel Test for Women and The 2011 Academy Awards

Do this year’s Oscar nominees contain even one scene where two women speak to each other about something other than a man? 

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I have to reblog this again. It’s too hard to resist after reading this LA Times article, which contains the following passage:

Oscar voters are nearly 94% Caucasian and 77% male, The Times found. Black people are about 2% of the academy, and Latinos are less than 2%. Oscar voters have a median age of 62, the study showed. People younger than 50 constitute just 14% of the membership. 

The Times found that some of the academy’s 15 branches are almost exclusively white and male. Caucasians currently make up 90% or more of every academy branch except actors, whose roster is 88% white. The academy’s executive branch is 98% white, as is its writers branch.

Men compose more than 90% of five branches, including cinematography and visual effects. Of the academy’s 43-member board of governors, six are women; public relations executive Cheryl Boone Isaacs is the sole person of color.

As Anita Sarkeesian notes in her Bechdel Test episode, none of this means that the current crop of Oscar nominees are bad movies. But it probably does mean that equally good movies have been left out for no good reason. And it virtually guarantees that movies that don’t reinforce the white male experience will not receive nominations. 

(via alwaysalright)

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