{"id":13341,"date":"2011-05-25T15:48:41","date_gmt":"2011-05-25T22:48:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=13341"},"modified":"2011-05-25T16:26:27","modified_gmt":"2011-05-25T23:26:27","slug":"with-thanks-to-liz-wallace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=13341","title":{"rendered":"With Thanks to Liz Wallace."},"content":{"rendered":"

[This post is by Kip Manley, and cross-posted from his blog Long Story; Short Pier<\/a> with his kind permission.]<\/em><\/p>\n

The crew is unisex and all parts are interchangeable for men or women.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2014Dan O\u2019Bannon<\/a>, Alien<\/em> (n\u00e9e Starbeast)<\/a><\/div>\n

FOOM! FOOM! FOOM! With explosions of escaping gas, the lids on the freezers pop open. \u2014Slowly, groggily, six nude men sit up.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2014ibid.<\/a><\/p>\n

Having pretty women as the main characters was a real clich\u00e9 of horror movies and I wanted to stay away from that. So I made up the character of Ripley, whom I didn\u2019t know was going to be a woman at the time\u2026 I sent the people of the studios some notations and what I thought should happen and when we were about to make the movie the producer of the film jumped on it. He just liked the idea and told me we should make that Ripley character a woman. I thought that the captain would have been an old woman and the Ripley character a young man, that would have been interesting. But he said, \u201cNo, let\u2019s make the hero a woman.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2014Dan O\u2019Bannon, Cult People<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

[Veronica Cartwright] originally read for the role of Ripley, and was not informed that she had instead been cast as Lambert until she arrived in London for wardrobe. She disliked the character\u2019s emotional weakness, but nevertheless accepted the role: \u201cThey convinced me that I was the audience\u2019s fears; I was a reflection of what the audience is feeling.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2014Wikipedia, \u201cAlien (film)#Casting<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

FANTASTIC FILMS<\/strong>
\nHave you had any second thoughts about doing science fiction pictures in a row \u2013 first, Invasion of the Body Snatchers<\/em> and now Alien?
\nCARTWRIGHT<\/strong>
\nOh yeah. They were both screaming and running and crying films. But they were both very different.
\nFF<\/strong>
\nAre you worried being type-cast in the sort of role?
\nCARTWRIGHT<\/strong>
\nWell, I have to be very careful in picking my roles. I would like to do something comic next. I\u2019m tired of crying. You know what I mean.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2014Fantastic Films<\/em> interview with Veronica Cartwright<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

What\u2019s the Mo Movie Measure, you ask? It\u2019s an idea from Alison Bechdel\u2019s brilliant comic strip, Dykes to Watch Out For<\/em>. The character \u201cMo\u201d explains that she only watches movies in which:<\/p>\n

\n
    \n
  1. there are at least two named female characters, who<\/li>\n
  2. talk to each other about<\/li>\n
  3. something other than a man.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    It\u2019s appalling how few movies can pass the Mo Movie Measure.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    \u2014Ampersand<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

    Julie from Portland, OR, kindly emailed us to let us know that lefty blogs like Pandagon have been discussing the Mo Movie Measure a film-going concept that originated in an early DTWOF strip, circa 1985. We were excited to hear that someone still remembers this 20-year-old chestnut. But alas, the principle is misnamed. It appears in \u201cThe Rule,\u201d a strip found on page 22 of the original DTWOF collection. Mo actually doesn\u2019t appear in DTWOF until two years later. Her first strip can be found half-way through More DTWOF. Alison would also like to add that she can\u2019t claim credit for the actual \u201crule.\u201d She stole it from a friend, Liz Wallace, whose name is on the marquee in the comic strip.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    \u2014Cathy, not Alison, despite what the author tag says<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

    By the way, when I coined the phrase \u201cMo Movie Measure,\u201d I screwed up\u2014the character in Dykes To Watch Out For<\/em> who says it, isn\u2019t Mo!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    \u2014Ampersand<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

    She bears a strong resemblance to Ginger, but it isn\u2019t a definitive resemblance. The strip is from before DTWOF developed an ongoing cast of characters, so it is hard to tell if Bechdel intended Ginger to have been that character from that strip when Ginger started appeared in the strip. The character in \u201cThe Rule\u201d seems physically bulkier than I recall Ginger being, but that could be a shift in drawing style.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    \u2014Charles S<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Also, the bit about the two female characters having to have names\u2014which I thought had been in the original comic strip\u2014was apparently added by me. Oops again.
    \nThat\u2019s how these cultural ideas develop\u2014it\u2019s just a giant game of \u201ctelephone.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    \u2014Ampersand<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

    The Mo Movie Measure\u2014what to call it now?<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    \u2014Pandagon, 18 August 2005<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

    \/bech\u2022del test\/ n.<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. It has to have at least two women in it<\/li>\n
    2. Who talk to each other<\/li>\n
    3. About something besides a man<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/blockquote>\n

      \u2014bechdeltest.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

      A variant of the test, in which the two women must additionally be named characters, is also called the Mo Movie Measure.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

      \u2014Wikipedia, \u201cDykes to Watch Out For#Bechdel_test<\/a>\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

      If any studio executives are reading this, let me give some examples: Names are things like \u201cAnnie Hall\u201d and \u201cErin Brockovich\u201d and \u201cScarlett O\u2019Hara.\u201d Things that are not names include, to cite some credits from this year\u2019s movies, \u201cFemale Junkie,\u201d \u201cMr. Anderson\u2019s Secretary,\u201d and \u201cTopless Party Girl.\u201d<\/p>\n

      The wonderful and tragic thing about the Bechdel Test is not, as you\u2019ve doubtless already guessed, that so few Hollywood films manage to pass, but that the standard it creates is so pathetically minimal\u2014the equivalent of those first 200 points we\u2019re all told we got on the SATs just for filling out our names. Yet as the test has proved time and again, when it comes to the depiction of women in studio movies, no matter how low you set the bar, dozens of films will still trip over it and then insist with aggrieved self-righteousness that the bar never should have been there in the first place and that surely you\u2019re not talking about quotas.<\/p>\n

      Well, yes, you big, dumb, expensive \u201cbased on a graphic novel\u201d doofus of a major motion picture: I am talking about quotas. A quota of two whole women and one whole conversation that doesn\u2019t include the line \u201cI saw him first!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

      \u2014Mark Harris, \u201cI Am Woman. Hear Me\u2026 Please<\/a>!<\/em>\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

      I was struck by the simplicity of this test and by its patent validity as a measure of gender bias. As I thought about it some more, it occurred to me how few of the classic works of literature that I teach to my high school freshmen would pass this test: The Odyssey<\/em>? Nope. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass<\/em>? Nope. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn<\/em>. Nope. Romeo and Juliet<\/em>. Nope.<\/p>\n

      What\u2019s wrong with me?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

      \u2014Frank Kovarik, \u201cNavigating the waters of our biased culture<\/em><\/a>\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

      Female characters are traditionally peripheral<\/em> to male ones. That\u2019s why we don\u2019t want to hear them chatting about anything other than the male characters: because in making them peripheral, the writer has assured the women can\u2019t possibly contribute to the story unless<\/em> they\u2019re telling us something about the men who drive the plot. That<\/em> is the problem the test is highlighting. And that\u2019s why shoehorning an awkward scene in which two named female characters discuss the price of tea in South Africa while the male characters are off saving the world will only hang a lantern on how powerfully you\u2019ve sidelined your female characters for no reason other than sexism, conscious or otherwise.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

      \u2014<\/em>Jennifer Kesler, “The Bechdel Test: it’s not about passing.<\/em><\/a>“<\/em><\/p>\n

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      [This post is by Kip Manley, and cross-posted from his blog Long Story; Short Pier with his kind permission.] The crew is unisex and all parts are interchangeable for men or women. \u2014Dan O\u2019Bannon, Alien (n\u00e9e Starbeast) FOOM! FOOM! FOOM! … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[135,31,62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crossposted-on-tada","category-feminism-sexism-etc","category-popular-and-unpopular-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13341"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13343,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13341\/revisions\/13343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}