The Mako Mori Test Explained
People really enjoy boiling complex topics down to simple boxes that can be checked, regardless of how inane and ineffective that system will almost always be. A concept like gender representation in genre fiction does not easily map onto a yes or no question, but that won't stop people on the internet from trying.
In 1985, cartoonist and author Allison Bechdel put out an entry in her long-running comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For entitled «The Rule.» In it, a character explains that she has a unique rule she applies to films to determine whether she'll see them. Her standards require any film she'll sit through to feature at least two women having a conversation about something other than a man. This paradigm was christened the Bechdel test (more accurately known as the Bechdel-Wallace test) and has gone on to criminally overshadow the rest of Bechdel's work and remains controversial today.
The Suicide Squad's Margot Robbie Wants More Women In Action Movies
The Bechdel test has spawned a movement in various online forums, many of which have radically misunderstood its meaning. There are a few different sites that report upon new releases' passes and failures and endless discussion of exactly what passes the very low bar. Many proclaim it a simple and effective way of judging the representation of women in film while others think it wildly oversimplifies an extremely complex issue. Some are furious that the discussion is being had at all and others think that mandatory Bechdel tests reported on movie posters would fix the medium. A fairly common response to the Bechdel test is to try to devise a successor that will accomplish the same goal more successfully. One such attempt is the Mako Mori test.
Guillermo del Toro's 2013
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