Safe to say Alien would pass the Bechdel Test! I adore Ellen Ripley, and Weaver seems so fabulous in real life too, what a wonderful intersection of events and people, that gave us Ripley.

So Sarah Connor good one too, though her run shorter and impact smaller, and she certainly would fail any meta bechdel test (as her lady parts are responsible for her role).

Ripley wasn't originally written as a woman. The original ALIEN script is not gender specific.

I believe this to be a LARGE portion of why Ripley is such a good female protagonist. Because she is just a good character, despite gender. (Something I think your average exec can't wrap their head around).

As for Sarah Connor -- not a single doubt in my mind that James Cameron based a large chunk of her off Ripley. I mean, he was writing ALIENS at the same time as TERMINATOR. His Ripley and T2 Sarah Connor are remarkably similar.

That Bechdel Test is somewhat flawed. By design, one of the limiting factors is that you MUST have 2 females in the film. This means any film that only has 1 female is automatically disqualified. Yet, films with only a single male are can both pass the Misogynistic test as well as the Bechdel one.

The Bechdel Test really is more of a snarky joke and stab at Hollywood than any hard and fast rule about female protagonists.

By the Bechdel Test, Princess Leia fails. Sarah Connor almost does as well -- her roommate and her only talk about boys. Lucky she has female co-workers, right? "You're dead, honey." What a woman empowering sentiment :p

You're so right about flawed, James. A casual smart observation turned crude measuring stick. That there's talking is good I think (doing even better, shout-out Jolie re Wanted and Salt).

After thinking about Bechdel earlier, came across this (screenwriter talking about BT). Nothing happy, so then I visited Ebert for some new movie happy, and his journal post was even less happy.

Two conversations between chicks on TV that really struck me, Closer with Brenda and internal affairs woman on day Brenda's being considered for Chief (two very different women bonding for the empowerment of all women), and Burn Notice with Fiona rescuing a woman (explaining you have to be your own white knight) (the fabulous writer was Lisa Joy, a student of Scott). Both moments were so wonderfully done--and felt like genuine fresh TV viewing.

James and Atlanta: The Bechdel Test, which I've posted about here and here, does have its flaws, but I guess whatever can cause a writer, producer, exec or whoever to expand their consciousness re female roles, the better.

As a writer, I would rather the inspiration was a creative one, rather than some sort of external onus laid upon us. Simply out of curiosity, approach a story where you gender-bend some roles -- to see what happens. What if Cogburn in "True Grit" was a female? You can extrapolate the core of that and evolve it into a 'similar but different' movie.

Actually not a bad idea...

Oh, I forgot. Thanks for those links, Atlanta. Very interesting.

Thanks for reposting links to your Bechdel and Kesler/Hathor posts, Scott! Wonderful reads, much appreciated.

Tomb Raider Lara Croft btw began as a boy but got changed to a girl when the makers realized looking at a chick's behind (view while playing) a whole lot funner. I'll take that reason, and any other, for moving in the right direction.

Would love to see True Grit with woman lead! May someone be running with that idea. I think smart writers are key, and I am particularly grateful to smart women writers like Lisa Joy and Gail Simone (comic books, Secret Six amazing series thanks to her, and she also breathed entirely new life into a super hero woman, Power Girl, who was known before only for her impressive keyhole cleavage).

My sweetest link find of the week, 2011 TED Prize Winner, JR, here the mini-documentary talking about him and showing work (have some tissue nearby, or is that just me that cries at beautiful art and people).

Re Lisa Joy: Lisa took two of the first online screenwriting classes I taught. At the time, she was just graduating with a B.A. from Stanford. I believe she then went to work at Universal in their legal department which somehow helped defray costs for her to go to Harvard Law School. Throughout her law school years, we stayed in touch. Lisa kept saying she wanted to be a writer. I kept saying, "You have the talent to do it. But screenwriting and TV writing is extremely competitive. Get that law degree just in case."

If you can imagine, while going to Harvard Law School, Lisa somehow found the time to keep writing. She sent me a very funny comedy she co-wrote with, I presume, a fellow student.

Then she graduated and landed a gig doing corporate law in LA. Still yearning to be a writer. All I could do was to keep encouraging her.

Lisa wrote a spec "Veronica Mars." It landed in the hands of Bryan Fuller who was just launching the ABC series "Pushing Daisies." Lisa met with Bryan. He hired her. She quit law. And is now a successful TV writer as well as graphic novelist.

I invited Lisa to speak to one of my classes in LA a few years back. She said something I thought was profound. She told my students, "You have to think of yourself as a professional writer. Treat how you approach your writing that way. You will get more done, your writing will be better, and you'll be preparing yourself for when you finally succeed."

I can't tell you how much joy I get when one of my students goes on to find success as a writer. And I expect great things from Lisa.

What a wonderful story, Scott, thank you so much for sharing. And agreed on profound. Louis Pasteur put it nicely too, "luck favors the prepared."

It's fabulous that Joy is so darn hard-working and talented and has a great mentor, we all benefit on multiple levels from the great work she produces. May she be busy for a long time to come.

[...] the gender of the characters. Ripley’s role could have easily been filled by that of a man, and that’s how it was written. The end result was just a badass collection of characters, free from preconceived notions of how [...]