Bechdel on Steroids

Luke mentioned that homoeroticism, and in turn, homophobia, being used as a punch line is very common in today’s society. Whether it be the scene in She’s the Man when Malvolio the tarantula is in Duke and Sebastian's room they're jumping up and down on the bed hugging and screaming, but when they realize they're hugging they separate and scream even louder, or the blatant, “paging Dr. Faggot” in “The Hangover.” I was so shocked to hear people actually laugh at that when it was in “The Hangover.” Albeit the timing was funny because his girlfriend/fiancée is so uptight, but the whole joke was that he was called a faggot, which she then repeated back to him, “you better go Dr. Faggot.” What makes that kind of stuff funny, like actually where is the humor in it? Is it funny to be called gay? Is faggot a funny-sounding word? Or is that just the worst possible insult his friends could think of and that’s why they shouted it through the window?

This is why I’m proposing a new Bechdel test to evaluate the level of homophobic behavior parallel to the amount of homosocial relationships in the movie. As we know from the original Bechdel test, it is rare for two women to be having an independent conversation not talking about getting a man or having kids. This offers plenty of opportunity for men to be talking about a variety of different things whether with other women or alone. Hence: lots of opportunity for homosocial bonding.

Alison Bechdel, creator of the original Bechdel test

The new Bechdel test would be:

1) Is there a direct conversation between two men not talking about getting a girl

2) Is there no sort of homosexual joke, parody behavior, or homophobic tension regarding that conversation

Answer is, probably not. Although many, many movies involve male bonding over a variety of things other than getting a woman, few of these movies go the full run time without a single homophobic joke or punch line. Even Ron Howard slips homophobia into his new movie, “The Dilemma” with the opening lines, “Electric cars are gay. Not homosexual gay, but ‘my parents are chaperoning the dance’ gay.” As a result Anderson Cooper stepped in and pointed it out on CNN, and the new trailer was not publicized heavily by any means. To come out of the blue at a time when we have been making strides towards anti-gay bullying and finally noticing the negative effects of gay jokes and gay targeting is beyond a punch line.

One movie that would pass the “new Bechdel test” is “Big Daddy” the Adam Sandler Movie when the two male lawyers, who had not had their sexual identities revealed to the audience, kissed passionately. When one character attempts homophobic behavior with the line, “I gotta admit, it weirded me out a little when those guys kissed.” Adam Sandler responds, “"Why? They’re gay. That’s what gay guys do."

In one fell swoop, gay people are demystified and romanticized – but not overly-sexualized. Woo hoo!