I'm 77 today. Been married three times. Now a widow, living alone with my four rescue dogs. I read one to two books a day. Except for one male author, I find myself boycotting books written by men or with male protagonists. Not big on females who have to be rescued by males, either. So I'm definitely on board for doing away with women as sexy lamps!
This was fascinating to read, and it also puts a fire under me. I write novels and screenplays, and my stories most definitely pass the tests. I love to write about strong complex women. Your words encourage me to keep going.
Hi! It's Bechdel, as in Alison, not Bechtel as in the corporation! (Also Alison says she got it from a friend, but still.) thanks! Great piece, the lamp thing is too real.
I also see this as the easiest support for female voices. Even with the best of intentions many males are going to write from the male perspective just out of bias. This is another reason representation matters. All those left behind by male only narratives. Shawshank isn’t a problem until all other movies are. When all movies meet representation collectively, a movie about just a man, woman, non binary person, etc. wouldn’t stick out so bad.
“Shawshank isn’t a problem until all the other movies are.” Yes! Exactly what I was trying to say- it’s not individual movies that are the problem- it’s the collective pattern- thank you!
This is so eye-opening! It would be interesting to see the same kind of statistics for popular streaming shows. I’d like to think they have more creative freedom and there is more representation…but is there? Theoretically, a series is more developed (for the same reasons a book is always better than the movie), so it could follow that w/more character development we see more ‘real-life’ and not just what’s in the minds you described, But I’ve been known to be ignorantly optimistic before.
Definitely more shows than movies pass the Bechdel test for sure. But how much of that is just it would be harder to make 8 seasons of a show and NEVER have women talk to each other than a 2 hour movie (although Seinfeld managed it pretty well). Do the female characters pass the sexy lamp test? They may talk to each other but are they PDGs? I’m thinking of like Topanga from Boy Meets World (I have so many Topanga thoughts she just may get her own essay one day) - she talks to other girls over the course of 8 seasons but is a PDG through and through.
I love your essays, Celeste, and appreciate being enlightened by them each week!
Funny thing, when I saw the title of this article I anticipated a mention of the sexy leg lamp in the 1983 movie “A Christmas Story”. It’s cringy how much the husband admires it despite his wife’s disgust, an example of how a sexy lamp replaces his wife so easily.
Keep writing! You are absolutely brilliant and fantastic!
Ugh rewatching Christmas Story this past year and I couldn't unsee it. The mom is basically a Mom Appliance who does and says mom things. And the dad is a lazy douche and hahaha it's so funny let's watch it every year lol 🙄
I'm a member of the Burned Haystack Dating Method® FB group ( @jennieyoung ) and another member commented that they were rewatching Grey's Anatomy but couldn't enjoy it anymore because now she picked up on all the normalized domestic violence scenes and references. She said there's a scene in episode 5 where the Dr. Meredith Grey character gets drunk at a party and her crush, Dr. McDreamy, uses that to his advantage. They have sex in his car but she's clearly too drunk to give consent.
Another member commented that they teach domestic violence education at the police academy and a big part of her presentation is pointing out how DV is normalized in the media. She posted a couple of links to The Notebook and Mrs. Doubtfire trailers if they were recut as horror films. It would be funny if not for the normalization of so much toxic behavior. She said you can also search IMBD for "abused woman".
The thing that strikes me is that most men interact with many women in school and work. My boss is a woman and 60% of my peers are women; they discuss many topics the least of which is men. 95% of my team women, could only name 50% of the men in their lives (significant others). These are highly effective women that get shit done by leading project teams.
Men in Media must actively create these made-for-TV realities where women don’t contribute while sitting in meetings rooms with women leading teams of designers, casting crews, bankers, and marketers. Some report to women bosses, yet choose to create worlds where the voices heard are male.
As consumers, these tests can guide the “macros” we are consuming.
Great post! I can remember being pissed at Florence Pugh for Oppenheimer - she is so much better than that role. But I can't even remember Emily Blunt being in that film. Such a waste of great talent... 🙁
I agree with all of you. I think Emily's character was one-dimensional at best, and it feels like that was a huge part of Oppenheimer's story that they missed. Won't bother watching it again.
Yikes. I could talk about this all day. Let's do the WHOLE list. I thought I came up with it myself when I was watching the Princess Bride (for the 238th time) a few months ago and realized "omg you could replace Princess Buttercup with a vase and not change the rest of the plot like, AT ALL."
And then we see how pissy men get about movies like Barbie - where they are not the main characters - even though Greta gave those Kens some pretty good character arcs (no comparison to the women in Shawshank). It's like these men think women are... Making it up that we have inner lives and things.
Okay could this be why I love all of the real housewives shows? I wouldn’t want to know or hang out with any of these women but I think these shows pass all 4 of the tests? Lol
This is pretty revelatory for me because before I watched the real housewives I thought it was just a show of women fighting but it’s so much more than that and this essay explains that to me. It’s a series of shows entirely from women’s pov and passes all of the tests. Definitely something to celebrate 🙌
"My fear is that these men aren’t creating alternate universes, but rather they are accurately displaying how rarely they think about women beyond their service to men."
Ahhhh ding ding ding!
Every once in a while something like this pierces through and reminds me how I--and women everywhere--are seen by many men, and it's....unsettling !
I finally saw ‘A complete unknown’ and the sexy lamp analogy was 100% accurate for the two leading women!! I couldn’t believe how sadly and dispiritingly this captured the entirety of their role in the film. Even Joan Baez reduced to this - and I cannot find any reviews that even called this out or flagged this to me in advance of watching the film 😡😡😡😡 I cannot unsee this now - thank you for sharing this.
A couple of points. 1) I have been writing and talking for years about how pop culture tells us how to be. (See link below). 2) Even in TV shows and films that supposedly "empower" women, like NCIS, the "empowerment" is that "women can fight just like men." Which seems like an apologia for the entire show depicting sexual harassment ("SEE, the woman is dishing it out, too, so it's OK!)
We ignore pop culture as "just a story" at our peril. Think about how many war films and scammers as hero films we've seen in the last decade. And then wonder how we elected a bunch of scammers to the highest offices in the land.
“Forget *movies* not passing the sexy lamp test, I want to know how many men’s minds would pass!”
This line made me pause and consider it for myself.
I like that, thank you for sharing.
I'm 77 today. Been married three times. Now a widow, living alone with my four rescue dogs. I read one to two books a day. Except for one male author, I find myself boycotting books written by men or with male protagonists. Not big on females who have to be rescued by males, either. So I'm definitely on board for doing away with women as sexy lamps!
Yes my sexy lamp radar is so sensitive it has become easier for me to stick with female authored books too
And happy birthday!!
Happy Birthday, Elaine! I think dogs are nice people to live with.
Happy birthday Elaine and thanks for giving me a vision for my future that actually sounds peaceful and amazing!
This was fascinating to read, and it also puts a fire under me. I write novels and screenplays, and my stories most definitely pass the tests. I love to write about strong complex women. Your words encourage me to keep going.
We need you Dawn!
Hi! It's Bechdel, as in Alison, not Bechtel as in the corporation! (Also Alison says she got it from a friend, but still.) thanks! Great piece, the lamp thing is too real.
Whoopsie daisy. Thanks for letting me know- I fixed it 😊
Holy crap. Glad to meet you!
I also see this as the easiest support for female voices. Even with the best of intentions many males are going to write from the male perspective just out of bias. This is another reason representation matters. All those left behind by male only narratives. Shawshank isn’t a problem until all other movies are. When all movies meet representation collectively, a movie about just a man, woman, non binary person, etc. wouldn’t stick out so bad.
“Shawshank isn’t a problem until all the other movies are.” Yes! Exactly what I was trying to say- it’s not individual movies that are the problem- it’s the collective pattern- thank you!
This is so eye-opening! It would be interesting to see the same kind of statistics for popular streaming shows. I’d like to think they have more creative freedom and there is more representation…but is there? Theoretically, a series is more developed (for the same reasons a book is always better than the movie), so it could follow that w/more character development we see more ‘real-life’ and not just what’s in the minds you described, But I’ve been known to be ignorantly optimistic before.
Definitely more shows than movies pass the Bechdel test for sure. But how much of that is just it would be harder to make 8 seasons of a show and NEVER have women talk to each other than a 2 hour movie (although Seinfeld managed it pretty well). Do the female characters pass the sexy lamp test? They may talk to each other but are they PDGs? I’m thinking of like Topanga from Boy Meets World (I have so many Topanga thoughts she just may get her own essay one day) - she talks to other girls over the course of 8 seasons but is a PDG through and through.
I love your essays, Celeste, and appreciate being enlightened by them each week!
Funny thing, when I saw the title of this article I anticipated a mention of the sexy leg lamp in the 1983 movie “A Christmas Story”. It’s cringy how much the husband admires it despite his wife’s disgust, an example of how a sexy lamp replaces his wife so easily.
Keep writing! You are absolutely brilliant and fantastic!
Oh of course! I can’t believe I didn’t mention the leg lamp! And come to think of it- the wife in that movie was pretty lamp like herself
Ugh rewatching Christmas Story this past year and I couldn't unsee it. The mom is basically a Mom Appliance who does and says mom things. And the dad is a lazy douche and hahaha it's so funny let's watch it every year lol 🙄
I'm a member of the Burned Haystack Dating Method® FB group ( @jennieyoung ) and another member commented that they were rewatching Grey's Anatomy but couldn't enjoy it anymore because now she picked up on all the normalized domestic violence scenes and references. She said there's a scene in episode 5 where the Dr. Meredith Grey character gets drunk at a party and her crush, Dr. McDreamy, uses that to his advantage. They have sex in his car but she's clearly too drunk to give consent.
Another member commented that they teach domestic violence education at the police academy and a big part of her presentation is pointing out how DV is normalized in the media. She posted a couple of links to The Notebook and Mrs. Doubtfire trailers if they were recut as horror films. It would be funny if not for the normalization of so much toxic behavior. She said you can also search IMBD for "abused woman".
https://youtu.be/fFRmg9RWpHE?si=gupSLrkSBRP_JHbZ
https://youtu.be/U71P5FKFqfg?si=vECt6abSHPiCIVNk
Yiiiiiikes
The thing that strikes me is that most men interact with many women in school and work. My boss is a woman and 60% of my peers are women; they discuss many topics the least of which is men. 95% of my team women, could only name 50% of the men in their lives (significant others). These are highly effective women that get shit done by leading project teams.
Men in Media must actively create these made-for-TV realities where women don’t contribute while sitting in meetings rooms with women leading teams of designers, casting crews, bankers, and marketers. Some report to women bosses, yet choose to create worlds where the voices heard are male.
As consumers, these tests can guide the “macros” we are consuming.
Great post! I can remember being pissed at Florence Pugh for Oppenheimer - she is so much better than that role. But I can't even remember Emily Blunt being in that film. Such a waste of great talent... 🙁
SUCH a waste.
Same here. Oppenheimer was a waste of time.
I agree with all of you. I think Emily's character was one-dimensional at best, and it feels like that was a huge part of Oppenheimer's story that they missed. Won't bother watching it again.
Yikes. I could talk about this all day. Let's do the WHOLE list. I thought I came up with it myself when I was watching the Princess Bride (for the 238th time) a few months ago and realized "omg you could replace Princess Buttercup with a vase and not change the rest of the plot like, AT ALL."
And then we see how pissy men get about movies like Barbie - where they are not the main characters - even though Greta gave those Kens some pretty good character arcs (no comparison to the women in Shawshank). It's like these men think women are... Making it up that we have inner lives and things.
Oh lol you wrote a whole article about Barbie, Celeste. Let's be friends!
Okay could this be why I love all of the real housewives shows? I wouldn’t want to know or hang out with any of these women but I think these shows pass all 4 of the tests? Lol
Definitely pass all the tests 👍
This is pretty revelatory for me because before I watched the real housewives I thought it was just a show of women fighting but it’s so much more than that and this essay explains that to me. It’s a series of shows entirely from women’s pov and passes all of the tests. Definitely something to celebrate 🙌
Suuuuuch a great article! Thanks Celeste! xxx
"My fear is that these men aren’t creating alternate universes, but rather they are accurately displaying how rarely they think about women beyond their service to men."
Ahhhh ding ding ding!
Every once in a while something like this pierces through and reminds me how I--and women everywhere--are seen by many men, and it's....unsettling !
I finally saw ‘A complete unknown’ and the sexy lamp analogy was 100% accurate for the two leading women!! I couldn’t believe how sadly and dispiritingly this captured the entirety of their role in the film. Even Joan Baez reduced to this - and I cannot find any reviews that even called this out or flagged this to me in advance of watching the film 😡😡😡😡 I cannot unsee this now - thank you for sharing this.
A couple of points. 1) I have been writing and talking for years about how pop culture tells us how to be. (See link below). 2) Even in TV shows and films that supposedly "empower" women, like NCIS, the "empowerment" is that "women can fight just like men." Which seems like an apologia for the entire show depicting sexual harassment ("SEE, the woman is dishing it out, too, so it's OK!)
We ignore pop culture as "just a story" at our peril. Think about how many war films and scammers as hero films we've seen in the last decade. And then wonder how we elected a bunch of scammers to the highest offices in the land.
https://open.substack.com/pub/carriekaufman/p/gene-kelly-anita-hill-and-the-life?r=3lwct&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false