Why is Gender Representation Important?
Gender representation is something that a lot of people either take for granted or don’t think about at all. But when you take a good look at a lot of popular shows and movies, you will realize that the casts are not all that diverse or accurate in terms of real world depiction of gender. People usually think of how women are portrayed when thinking about gender representation, but trans and non binary representation is scarce and also a huge issue.
About 1.3% of the US population identifies as transgender and women make up about 50.8% of the US population. That means that between women, binary trans people, and non binary people, that is over 169,689,700 people who are not well represented in mainstream media. Even though women are the majority of the US population, they are outnumbered two to one by men in terms of speaking roles in film, cable, streaming, and broadcasting. Binary trans characters in broadcast, cable, and streaming programs barely even make it to the double digits, and you could probably count the number of non binary characters on one hand.
Having TV shows and other media accurately represent the real world is extremely important. If you don’t see yourself or someone similar to you in mainstream media you could feel othered, left out, or invalid. This bad representation can also cause people who are not women, trans, or nonbinary to assume that this is how they should act around those groups of people or assume that those characters on TV are accurate. This can have real world consequences like sexual assault and hate crimes. Not to mention that women, binary trans people, and non binary people of color are represented much less than their white counterparts, leaving yet another group of people massively underrepresented.
About 1.3% of the US population identifies as transgender and women make up about 50.8% of the US population. That means that between women, binary trans people, and non binary people, that is over 169,689,700 people who are not well represented in mainstream media. Even though women are the majority of the US population, they are outnumbered two to one by men in terms of speaking roles in film, cable, streaming, and broadcasting. Binary trans characters in broadcast, cable, and streaming programs barely even make it to the double digits, and you could probably count the number of non binary characters on one hand.
Having TV shows and other media accurately represent the real world is extremely important. If you don’t see yourself or someone similar to you in mainstream media you could feel othered, left out, or invalid. This bad representation can also cause people who are not women, trans, or nonbinary to assume that this is how they should act around those groups of people or assume that those characters on TV are accurate. This can have real world consequences like sexual assault and hate crimes. Not to mention that women, binary trans people, and non binary people of color are represented much less than their white counterparts, leaving yet another group of people massively underrepresented.
The Bechdel Test
Alison Bechdel is a lesbian writer and cartoonist. Her books Fun Home, Are You My Mother, and a multitude of volumes of Dykes To Watch Out For tell the story of her life and the general experiences of lesbians. In the cartoon above, she explains the test that would be named after her, The Bechdel Test. The test does not measure if a piece of media is good or bad, it just measures the representation of women in that work. The comic strip explains that to pass the test a piece of media must:
Movies like Hidden Figures (2016), a heartwarming feminist tale about women breaking down barriers, pass the test with flying colors. It’s easy to pass such a simple test if your main characters are young women invested in pretty much anything other than their love life. The women in Hidden Figures talk to each other about a myriad of topics from being independent to astrophysics.
But not everything that passes the Bechdel test is Hidden Figures. In contrast, many of the pieces of media that do are far less than perfect. Sir Mix-a-Lot’s 1992 song “Baby got Back,” for instance passes the Bechdel Test with the opening dialogue between an unnamed woman and Becky. With no time constraint on the length of the conversation between two women, the line “Oh, my, God Becky, look at her butt/ it is so big” meets Alison Bechdel's representation requirements. It should be noted that more recently the requirement that both women must have names has been widely accepted, and the fact that the woman talking to Becky is not named would mean the opening dialogue of “Baby got Back” would not pass that variant of the Bechdel test. However ,there are more named women in the song than men, the men are strictly referred to as “fellas”.
Other pieces of media go far beyond their time and still don’t pass the test. The Women (1939) is an impressive movie. It follows Mary Haines, a woman who discovers her husband is having an affair and decides to get a divorce. This movie is revolutionary for its time. It would be another 30 years before “no fault divorce” would be legalized. The movie brags about having a cast of 135 women and chronicles their complicated relationships with each other, and yet this movie doesn't pass the Bechdel test. Almost every line is about a man to the point where the movies tagline was “‘the women” (and it's all about men).” This may seem ridiculous, but for the time this movie is a wonderful example for representation. And even today, with around only half of movies passing the test, it might still be an acclaimed feminist masterpiece.
Along with The Women, lots of other compelling movies don’t pass the test. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) is a beautiful silent film about Joan of Arc, an undeniably strong and complex woman, that doesn’t pass the test. The Star Wars trilogy doesn’t pass, despite how cool and beloved Princess Leia is, with only three women with speaking roles, none of whom speak to each other. Moonlight, the 2016 best picture winner, doesn’t pass the Bechdel Test either.
It’s clear that this test, while useful, is not a catchall for gender representation. Any test in which “Baby got Back” passes and a heartfelt story of Joan of Arc does not is not exactly one that is accurately displaying how women should be represented.
Alternatives to the Bechdel Test have been proposed but none have come close to replacing it.
Our alternative Bechdel test is as follows: To pass our modified test a movie must
THE VILLARREAL TEST
A movie fails if:
1. A lead female character is introduced as one of three common stereotypes in her first scene: as sexualized; as hardened, expressionless or soulless; or as a matriarch (tired, older or overworked)
But a failing movie can redeem itself and pass if the lead female character is later shown to be three or more of the following:
1. Someone with a career where she is in a position of authority or power
2. A mother
3. Someone who’s reckless or makes bad decisions
4. Someone who is sexual or chooses a sexual identity of her own
This only addresses the type of women we see not the amount of women, which is an aspect of representation that is often ignored.
THE REES DAVIES TEST
A movie passes:
1. If every department has 2 or more women
This focuses on women behind the camera which is still important.
What one should gather from this is not that there is one test that someone could construct to measure representation but instead that there are multiple levels and ways in which representation exists and that we should remain conscious of how the media we consume includes and treats women.
- Have 2 women
- Who talk to each other
- About something other than a man
Movies like Hidden Figures (2016), a heartwarming feminist tale about women breaking down barriers, pass the test with flying colors. It’s easy to pass such a simple test if your main characters are young women invested in pretty much anything other than their love life. The women in Hidden Figures talk to each other about a myriad of topics from being independent to astrophysics.
But not everything that passes the Bechdel test is Hidden Figures. In contrast, many of the pieces of media that do are far less than perfect. Sir Mix-a-Lot’s 1992 song “Baby got Back,” for instance passes the Bechdel Test with the opening dialogue between an unnamed woman and Becky. With no time constraint on the length of the conversation between two women, the line “Oh, my, God Becky, look at her butt/ it is so big” meets Alison Bechdel's representation requirements. It should be noted that more recently the requirement that both women must have names has been widely accepted, and the fact that the woman talking to Becky is not named would mean the opening dialogue of “Baby got Back” would not pass that variant of the Bechdel test. However ,there are more named women in the song than men, the men are strictly referred to as “fellas”.
Other pieces of media go far beyond their time and still don’t pass the test. The Women (1939) is an impressive movie. It follows Mary Haines, a woman who discovers her husband is having an affair and decides to get a divorce. This movie is revolutionary for its time. It would be another 30 years before “no fault divorce” would be legalized. The movie brags about having a cast of 135 women and chronicles their complicated relationships with each other, and yet this movie doesn't pass the Bechdel test. Almost every line is about a man to the point where the movies tagline was “‘the women” (and it's all about men).” This may seem ridiculous, but for the time this movie is a wonderful example for representation. And even today, with around only half of movies passing the test, it might still be an acclaimed feminist masterpiece.
Along with The Women, lots of other compelling movies don’t pass the test. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) is a beautiful silent film about Joan of Arc, an undeniably strong and complex woman, that doesn’t pass the test. The Star Wars trilogy doesn’t pass, despite how cool and beloved Princess Leia is, with only three women with speaking roles, none of whom speak to each other. Moonlight, the 2016 best picture winner, doesn’t pass the Bechdel Test either.
It’s clear that this test, while useful, is not a catchall for gender representation. Any test in which “Baby got Back” passes and a heartfelt story of Joan of Arc does not is not exactly one that is accurately displaying how women should be represented.
Alternatives to the Bechdel Test have been proposed but none have come close to replacing it.
Our alternative Bechdel test is as follows: To pass our modified test a movie must
- Have 2 named women
- With at least 15 minutes of screen time (total)
- Who have a conversation lasting at least 1 minute
- That is about something other than a man
THE VILLARREAL TEST
A movie fails if:
1. A lead female character is introduced as one of three common stereotypes in her first scene: as sexualized; as hardened, expressionless or soulless; or as a matriarch (tired, older or overworked)
But a failing movie can redeem itself and pass if the lead female character is later shown to be three or more of the following:
1. Someone with a career where she is in a position of authority or power
2. A mother
3. Someone who’s reckless or makes bad decisions
4. Someone who is sexual or chooses a sexual identity of her own
This only addresses the type of women we see not the amount of women, which is an aspect of representation that is often ignored.
THE REES DAVIES TEST
A movie passes:
1. If every department has 2 or more women
This focuses on women behind the camera which is still important.
What one should gather from this is not that there is one test that someone could construct to measure representation but instead that there are multiple levels and ways in which representation exists and that we should remain conscious of how the media we consume includes and treats women.
Binary Trans Representation
When discussing representation, people mostly address the simple dichotomy of cisgender women and men, which is a big issue, but this skips over the issue of trans representation. To be clear, in this section, binary trans identities include people who were assigned female at birth but identify as male, and people who were assigned male at birth but identify as female. About 1.3% of Americans identify as transgender according to the Williams Institute, but this number is probably higher, as this type of information is hard to accurately measure. This means that over 4 million people are either not represented or are not accurately represented in the media. On broadcast, cable, and streaming programs in 2016-2017, there were only 16 transgender characters that were recurring cast members (6% of all the roles on broadcast, cable, and streaming programs). Of those 16 characters, 12 were transgender women and 4 were transgender men. As of 2016-2017, 86% of Americans’ main source of information on transgender people was through the media only. Because that representation is not accurate, 86% of Americans are getting mostly inaccurate or information and only see stereotypes of trans people in the media.
In addition to there being very few characters who are trans , many of them are played by cis actors. As discussed in the Teen Vogue article “Why Trans Representation in Pop Culture Often Misses the Mark,” even if a cis actor chosen to play a trans character is amazing at their job, they will never know what it is like to be trans, so their roles fall flat for the majority of the trans community. There are plenty of struggling, talented trans actors out there who could fill these roles. In a few cases, such as on the show Transparent, there are teams of trans people to advise the show and double check what the writers and directors have done. This is a good place to start. At least they are making an effort to have good representation and not just writing the stereotypical story with the stereotypical trans character, but having trans actors play trans characters would improve representation.
Furthermore, trans characters’ story lines are most often about their transition and center around their identity as transgender, not their personality, their hobbies, or their relationships with other characters beyond being trans. While stories about transitioning are important and need to be told, they make it seem like the only major quality trans people have is being trans. They do not delve deeper into other aspects of the character’s personal lives or make them seem like actual people because they are just a cardboard cutout of a trans person. These stereotypes do not help anyone because they don’t show the true diversity of the trans community. There are so many trans people out there, and none of them are the same, and the media needs to show that.
Furthermore, trans characters’ story lines are most often about their transition and center around their identity as transgender, not their personality, their hobbies, or their relationships with other characters beyond being trans. While stories about transitioning are important and need to be told, they make it seem like the only major quality trans people have is being trans. They do not delve deeper into other aspects of the character’s personal lives or make them seem like actual people because they are just a cardboard cutout of a trans person. These stereotypes do not help anyone because they don’t show the true diversity of the trans community. There are so many trans people out there, and none of them are the same, and the media needs to show that.
Non-Binary Representation
Within the conversation of gender representation in the mainstream media, it is so easy to fall into the simple binary of men and women, but that excludes a large group of people who are almost never seen in movies or on TV. Those people are non-binary people (people who do not identify as male or female or identify as a mix of one or both e.g. gender non conforming, agender, gender fluid, genderqueer, etc). There is little to no representation of non-binary people in mainstream media, and a lot of people don’t even know that non-binary people exist or know very little about them. They are often side characters who are killed off or leave the show or movie quickly, or they are background characters, whose gender identities are merely Easter eggs to be found by the most loyal of fans. And, as mentioned before, their entire story lines, if they even have a story line, are about their gender identities.
A lot of people they look to movies and/or TV to learn more about people they do not have the chance to interact with in their every day life. But, as there is little to no representation and what little representation there is is inaccurate, people are getting a skewed view of non binary people as a whole. As said earlier, 86% of Americans learn about trans people through only media. In the same years, there were no non binary characters on broadcast, streaming, or cable. The lack of representation is part of what causes people to uninformed or misinformed, and what can have actual consequences in the real world, such as bullying and other types of discrimination.
A lot of people they look to movies and/or TV to learn more about people they do not have the chance to interact with in their every day life. But, as there is little to no representation and what little representation there is is inaccurate, people are getting a skewed view of non binary people as a whole. As said earlier, 86% of Americans learn about trans people through only media. In the same years, there were no non binary characters on broadcast, streaming, or cable. The lack of representation is part of what causes people to uninformed or misinformed, and what can have actual consequences in the real world, such as bullying and other types of discrimination.
Intersectionality Within Trans Representation and Racial Representation
Among the tiny amount of representation and screen time that non binary people and binary trans people get, most of the characters that are featured in mainstream media are white. As stated before, there are many, many different types of trans people out there, but the media does not portray that. In 2016-2017, of the 16 transgender characters on cable, broadcast, etc, 11 were white, 4 were black, and 1 was Asian American. There were no latinx transgender characters on broadcast, cable, or streaming at all in 2016-2017. This type of misrepresentation is one of the things that could have real world effects. In 2017, 24 out of the 26 transgender people who were murdered were people of color. Mostly trans women were killed.
Hypersexualization
Hypersexualization is a big problem in modern media that leads to many self-esteem issues in young girls and boys. To hypersexualize something means to blow the sexuality of something or someone completely out of proportion. This is done in all forms of media, in magazines, movies and television shows, in which men and women are seen in sexually suggestive clothing and poses to draw in audiences. In 2014, over 25% of women in the top grossing films of the year were wearing sexualized attire while showing some form of nudity. Less than 10% of men in those movies did the same.
Hypersexualization has been an issue in media for a long time. In a recent fashion magazine published in France, the cover featured a 13-year-old girl draped in gold jewelry, heavy makeup and a revealing metallic gold dress. This kind of display leads many to wonder, have we taken this too far? And we think the answer is “yes”. Women and men alike have been staring at these plastic people for far too long and will continue to do so.
Even the concept of strong female lead usually can’t be brought forth in media without incorporating sex appeal. This applies to many female superheroes, like Wonder Woman, for example. In the most recent Wonder Woman movie, our Amazonian heroine is seen dressed in the usual revealing bodysuit with a metal skirt and heels. Though many have made the argument that Wonder Woman is portrayed as embracing her sexuality and her powers, there are also quite a few who believe that it doesn’t make sense for Wonder Woman, a warrior, to wear so little in battle. The female power fantasy is being more widely embraced in action and superhero films with female leads, but the way the women are portrayed, physically, takes away from it quite a bit.
Hypersexualization of men is also a problem. This issue ties into the concept of toxic masculinity (which which be discussed in the following section) and how men have been portrayed in media time and time again as being sex-crazed lunatics. Though this is far from the truth, this kind of far-fetched trope in media may lead to younger boys developing negative expectations of themselves.
Men in media shouldn’t keep being portrayed as sex-craving and women shouldn’t continue to be portrayed as the perpetrators of that desire for the men. Their are so many other traits to give male and female characters to make them unique, sex appeal doesn’t always have to be one of them.
Hypersexualization has been an issue in media for a long time. In a recent fashion magazine published in France, the cover featured a 13-year-old girl draped in gold jewelry, heavy makeup and a revealing metallic gold dress. This kind of display leads many to wonder, have we taken this too far? And we think the answer is “yes”. Women and men alike have been staring at these plastic people for far too long and will continue to do so.
Even the concept of strong female lead usually can’t be brought forth in media without incorporating sex appeal. This applies to many female superheroes, like Wonder Woman, for example. In the most recent Wonder Woman movie, our Amazonian heroine is seen dressed in the usual revealing bodysuit with a metal skirt and heels. Though many have made the argument that Wonder Woman is portrayed as embracing her sexuality and her powers, there are also quite a few who believe that it doesn’t make sense for Wonder Woman, a warrior, to wear so little in battle. The female power fantasy is being more widely embraced in action and superhero films with female leads, but the way the women are portrayed, physically, takes away from it quite a bit.
Hypersexualization of men is also a problem. This issue ties into the concept of toxic masculinity (which which be discussed in the following section) and how men have been portrayed in media time and time again as being sex-crazed lunatics. Though this is far from the truth, this kind of far-fetched trope in media may lead to younger boys developing negative expectations of themselves.
Men in media shouldn’t keep being portrayed as sex-craving and women shouldn’t continue to be portrayed as the perpetrators of that desire for the men. Their are so many other traits to give male and female characters to make them unique, sex appeal doesn’t always have to be one of them.
Toxic Masculinity
In media, men are often portrayed as being tough, emotionless, and sexually appealing to most, if not all women they encounter. Any hint of femininity or weakness (both mentally and/or physically) is frowned upon and is seen as un-masculine. Stronger male characters in media are commonly portrayed as good-looking womanizers, while the not-so-strong men are seen as pathetic, unattractive, or pushovers. This toxic masculinity is present everywhere we look in the media and causes great damage to the minds of both younger and older boys.
When younger boys are exposed to toxic masculinity, it can lead to feeling shame for not fitting the standard, and anger towards other boys that don’t fit the ideals that toxic masculinity pushes. The desperation to achieve an unattainable body type and state of mind forces young boys onto a path in life that they may not have chosen themselves. Young boys who stray even the tiniest bit from the path that toxic masculinity forces them on are commonly seen as outcasts and are ridiculed by their peers. This has been been the case for many young boys all around the world, one of these boys being Sam Gouveia. Sam is a 5-year old boy who wore nail polish to school and got bullied so terribly that he came home in tears.
Media plays such a huge role in promoting toxic masculinity because it’s everywhere. It’s in advertisements, in television shows, in movies and in music. In advertisements for products like trucks, body spray and protein shakes more often than not the focus is on a man. These advertisements not only promote the product but also promotes toxic masculinity to boys of all ages. Younger boys see ads like this one selling AXE Body Spray and start developing an unrealistic expectation of the man they think they’re supposed to be. They’re taught that products like AXE will make them more “manly” and because of that it also shows younger boys that being masculine is what they should strive to be.
Toxic masculinity lies within modern music as well. A lot of male rappers rap about money, fame, sex appeal and women, saying that having all this is what makes them important; that it’s what makes them men. In songs like iSpy by KYLE, featuring Lil Yachty, the rap verse in it is all about money and sex, saying that it makes you a bigger and better man to surround yourselves with girls and expensive objects.
When younger boys are exposed to toxic masculinity, it can lead to feeling shame for not fitting the standard, and anger towards other boys that don’t fit the ideals that toxic masculinity pushes. The desperation to achieve an unattainable body type and state of mind forces young boys onto a path in life that they may not have chosen themselves. Young boys who stray even the tiniest bit from the path that toxic masculinity forces them on are commonly seen as outcasts and are ridiculed by their peers. This has been been the case for many young boys all around the world, one of these boys being Sam Gouveia. Sam is a 5-year old boy who wore nail polish to school and got bullied so terribly that he came home in tears.
Media plays such a huge role in promoting toxic masculinity because it’s everywhere. It’s in advertisements, in television shows, in movies and in music. In advertisements for products like trucks, body spray and protein shakes more often than not the focus is on a man. These advertisements not only promote the product but also promotes toxic masculinity to boys of all ages. Younger boys see ads like this one selling AXE Body Spray and start developing an unrealistic expectation of the man they think they’re supposed to be. They’re taught that products like AXE will make them more “manly” and because of that it also shows younger boys that being masculine is what they should strive to be.
Toxic masculinity lies within modern music as well. A lot of male rappers rap about money, fame, sex appeal and women, saying that having all this is what makes them important; that it’s what makes them men. In songs like iSpy by KYLE, featuring Lil Yachty, the rap verse in it is all about money and sex, saying that it makes you a bigger and better man to surround yourselves with girls and expensive objects.
Determining if a Character is One Dimensional
A big issue with measuring gender representation is determining whether or not a character is a stereotype. Too often we find ourselves creating a list of rules that mean and measure nothing. To be a feminist character one can’t be prudeish because she needs to be empowered, but she can’t be too sexual because she shouldn’t be a sex object. She can’t be driven by a man because she’s strong, but independent women can still have relationships. She shouldn’t be too feminine because that’s a stereotype, but she shouldn’t have to give up her womanhood to be a compelling character. In real life theres a relatively easy answer to balancing all the requirements, because real women act like real women when given the ability to choose. But when it comes to fictional women we can’t know what they would choose because fictional characters can’t make their own complicated choices. So there are several things one must ask to decide if the narrative a woman in the media fits is an issue or not.
It should also be taken into account that different stereotypes apply to different people. A strong spoken single mother might be a feminist portrayal of a white woman but could stray on the side of offensive for a racial minority. Not caring about her appearance could be the sign of a straight woman who has stepped away from the patriarchy, but might be a homophobic misrepresentation of a queer woman. And women aren’t the only people who deal with fitting weirdly complicated stereotypes. Trans and non binary people have their own slew of stereotypes that are hard to unravel. But the same rules apply: think of their motive, if they subvert the stereotype in someway, and if another trans or non binary person follows that stereotype. Real people are complicated, and our fictional counterparts should be too.
- Does she have a motive to do the (stereotypical) things she does? For instance, she's very motherly because her mother wasn’t. (Extra points if it's not a man that motivates her.)
- Does she subvert the stereotype in some way? For example, she's a mother who still works, she is feminine but doesn't shave and/or wear makeup, and she's sexually active but still self possessed and independent.
- Does some other woman in the piece of media not fit that stereotype at all? (with consideration of other stereotypes she might be fitting because of race, sexuality, religion, etc.) That is to say, there can be a woman who is a housewife if there’s also a woman who’s a construction worker.
It should also be taken into account that different stereotypes apply to different people. A strong spoken single mother might be a feminist portrayal of a white woman but could stray on the side of offensive for a racial minority. Not caring about her appearance could be the sign of a straight woman who has stepped away from the patriarchy, but might be a homophobic misrepresentation of a queer woman. And women aren’t the only people who deal with fitting weirdly complicated stereotypes. Trans and non binary people have their own slew of stereotypes that are hard to unravel. But the same rules apply: think of their motive, if they subvert the stereotype in someway, and if another trans or non binary person follows that stereotype. Real people are complicated, and our fictional counterparts should be too.