Option 1

            I chose to watch The Help, directed by Tate Taylor, because of my previous knowledge of the many leading roles women have throughout the movie.  While choosing the movie, I was trying to choose one that I thought would pass the Bechdel test because I wanted to find a popular movie that did not focus on men.  After rewatching it, I noticed quite a few things I hadn’t noticed the first time. 

A main goal of this movie seemed to be showing all different types of women such as the feminist, the homemaker, the maid, the promiscuous woman, the pushover and the bully; I feel like represtentation of all these roles definitely makes them come off as  “normal” women.  Something I noticed was that all the women are lead roles, the men seem to just a background in the movie and the women are dressed conservatively, besides the promiscuous one, and all but one seem to put a great deal of importance on their looks.

            I was extremely surprised that The Help did not entirely pass the Bechdel test, I for sure thought that since the main focus of the movie was to tell the stories of the black housemaids that there would not be talk of men.  This movie passed all but the most important test: it did have at least two women, these women would often talk to each other however at some points men were brought up.  The women talk about many things throughout the movie however two main points where men were brought up were the constant reminder to Skeeter that it was time for her to get married and the fight between Hilly and Celia (that is based on Celia marrying Hilly’s ex-boyfriend).  Although both of these things happened, they were not the main focus of the movie, which is why in a way I do think the movie passes the Bechdel test.