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Well for week 1 through 2 I completed the water color assignment and this one was pretty cool because I learned some new methods for art and I used Sgraffito, Lifting off, Splatter, Flat wash, Straw blowing and Rubber cement and those were very interesting combining all those 6 together for a winter theme watercolor painting. Week 3 was the Metamorphosis Drawing when I drew a chicken turning into a bucket of fried chicken and I’m not really sure how I thought of this but I’m glad I did this picture and it turned out well. The week 4 and 5 collage was probably the most complex thing I drew all year because it took a ton of colored pencils but the finished product looked great. For week 6 and 7 for the mosaic it took some effort to do as well because I just finished it in time on the very last day, The week 8 coat of arms assignment was really cool because it took about a day to complete and I used flyers colors for it, The last assignment was the create your own piece of art for week 9 and I did a image of homer simpson choking bart but homer is in a flyer’s jersey and bart is in a penguins jersey so this piece I would say I am very proud of.

In my original post, I introduced the issue of the sleep schedules of teenagers and how electronics and the abundant amount of homework affects the way students sleep. I provided information from various sources, such as statistics from different reliable sources that speaks of this issue. In this post, I will speak of new information I have received from different sources.

This image shows scholars using electronics in school.

From my new research, I’ve found out that the use of electronic devices affects sleep in a negative way. Teenagers are on their phones in the middle of the night, which distracts them from actually sleeping. As said from this website, it say the that two issues about the temptation of teenagers using their devices is the bright screens and the stimulation from using the electronics.

This image represents how children in general use their electronics before bed.

In the article, Kristen Knutson, who is the PhD assistant professor if the University of Chicago Department of Medicine, said that the light of electronics suppresses melatonin; which is a hormone that is involved in the sleeping/reproductive cycles in mammals. She also stated that it causes the brain to mix up the time of day it is, because when a bright light is on, the brain automatically thinks it should be awake and alert because something is happening at that exact moment.

How much time should teenagers be on their electronics?

According to The Guardian, it is said that teenagers should have a maximum of 2 hours a day on their electronics. Which I think is completely wrong. Yes, most teenagers use their devices for ridiculous things, but most scholars use their electronic devices in order to keep up with tasks and other things. I mostly use my phone to set alarms, read books, and text occasionally. But with 2 hours a day, I can at most just read a book. I feel like 2 hours is a ridiculous amount of time, but I also agree that teenagers should be more smarter on how long they use their electronics.

Going onto my original research. For my original research, I had interviewed a few of my friends. One friend from London, another from Tennessee, and two of my friends from my stream.

From the information I have gotten, procrastination and sleeping late had came up a few times. They have said the they mostly get distracted by their electronics, but still get their work done at the last minute. Another thing I have heard frequently was that a few do sleep late and don’t get enough sleep, but some other say that they do get enough sleep. With the information I was given, I’m starting to go towards the side that it’s the schools that have affected our sleep schedules, but then again, in some cases, I believe that it sometimes us ourselves that ruins our sleep schedules. In other words, there should be a way where we can find out how to use both our electronics responsibly and effcetively.

My annotated Bibliography is here

In class, we learned about two different movie test that judge based on  female inclusiveness and anti-gender biased ideals. The first test is called the Bechdel Test. This is a simple test that judges movies on the following three criteria: It has to have at least two women in it, the women have to talk to each other, and their conversation has to be about something besides a man. The second test is called the Mako Mori Test (named after Mako Mori from the movie, “Pacific Rim”.) This test judges movies on the following three criteria: There is at least one female character, this female character gets her own narrative arc, this arc must not support a man’s story.

The first movie I did these test on was “I, Tonya”. This movie is a biography of famous, olympic, ice skater, Tonya Harding. After watching the movie, I realized that this movie does pass the bechdel test. There are two women in the movie, Tonya Harding and her mother. They have multiple conversations with each other throughout the movie. Whenever the two talked, it was always about Ice Skating or how much they hate each other. They only talked about Tonya’s boyfriend once.

After reading the criteria for the Bechdel Test and Mako Mori Test, and analyzing them for things that could be added to improve the test, I have created my very own movie test that looks for gender and racial diversity. My test is called “The Joseph Test”, and it can be used to analyze any movie. The criteria for passing my test include: There must be at least two people of color who converse with one another and at least one of them must have their own story arc. There must be at least two women, of color or white, who converse with each other and at least one of them must have a story arc. The movie cannot be predominantly white male.

My test is actually difficult because a lot of movies wouldn’t pass my test. But, I can think of a few TV shows that would. In the upcoming Marvel TV series called “Cloak and Dagger”, the show’s lead characters are a black male and a white female. They will both have their own character arcs and the other supporting characters will mirror the diversity of the main characters. In turn, the show will not be predominantly white.

The two films that I’m choosing to review are Divergent and Black Panther. These are my personal favorite movies. Even though these are movies that have good female chracters we don’t know if they pass the bechdel test. The bechdel test is if two female characters in a movie have a conversation not involving a man.

Divergent is based on a futuristic society that is divided. It’s divided into five factions. Each faction has one specific role in their society. Everyone has to fit into either one of the factions, if you don’t your considered Divergent. In this case Tris is divergent and she has to hide her secret because divergent’s are considered a threat to their society. Tris must undergo physical and mental test in the faction she chose while also having to try and hide her secret.

The second movie that I’ll be reviewing is Black Panther. This movie was such a huge break through into the African American culture. Black Panther is a marvel movie about a technoligically advanced African civilization. T’Challa was the son of one of the King’s son. He was left in America by himself. T’Challa buit rage over the years and when he found Wakanda he took over it. Black Panther the real king of Wakanda took back his thrown after a vigorious battle.

I really fell in love with Divergent because Tris the main female character was a good example. She was strong and brave through out the movie. There were many task that she had to overcome but with the support of her family/firends they were able to escape oppression and abuse. This movies does pass the bechdel test because a lot of female charcaters talk with one another about their struggles.

Black Panther was a huge step forward for African/African American culture. The main character was not a female but there were a lots of females that played inportant roles too. For example, Okoya played role as the head of Wakanda’s special forces. She was such a strong female character because she was true warrior. Okoya risked everything for her country and was loyal to her leaders. She displayed an honorable warrior throughout the entire movie. This movies passes the bechdel test because there was a small snipit of two females having a conversation not regarding a male.

Now that you know background information about the two movies that I chose it’s time to make up my test of choice and see if it passes. For my test I’d like to see if there is at least one main female chracater that leads a group of people that doesn’t involve any sort of romance. It can’t be a minor part of the movie but important. With the new test that I made I’ll be reviewing Divergent and Black Panther to see if they pass the test.

I personally think that Divergent does not pass my test. Throughout the movie Tris has a romantic conncetion with Four the entire time. She is the leader of a group but the romance stands out more. Maybe in the other movies that came out after the first one do pass because Tris and Four already have the love it’s not like they need to build it. For example, Tris and Four are new lovers which involves more time on them to build that feeling throughout the movie. On the other hand, in the other movies the focus can be on building communities not love. If that makes sense.

Moving onto Black Panther, I think that it does pass my test. The Queen of Wakanda was a leader and she wasn’t involved in romance. She lost her husband and she wasn’t trying to rekindle a new flame. Next, Okoya was the general of Wakanda’s army. She did have a lover but they didn’t come in contact a lot in the movie. Okoya was even put to the test if she would chose her lover over her country and chose her country. I feel like it passes teh test because this idea of a women chosing her future over a man is not seen in many movies. Most movies the women leaves her job to fit into these men’s lives. So I feel like it showed a ver strong image on women today.

2 Films 2 Tests

1. The Bechdel Test:

1. At least two women in it

2. Who talk to each other

3. About something besides a man   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r 3UdYPD 0

2. The Technical Test:

1. At least two black males

2. Who talk to each other  

3. About motivation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dvt zO6 UAE

Kick-Ass is about Dave, a 16 year old kid that fights for the good. He ends up killing a villains father for justice. Afterwards the villain wants revenge for what he did. He walks around NYC to defend and protect people, with the help of his friends. Eventually he takes out the supervillain and saves NYC.

This movie passes the bechdel test. How you may ask? Well in the movie there a scene where there is a group of girls in the lunchroom talking about popularity, clothes, and well feminine things. One of the main characters Mindy aka Hit Girl usually dresses as a “regular female” no makeup, no dress, no ordinary life style. During this scene in the beginning Mindy decides to put on nail polish, lip gloss, heels, and a nice dress. She walks up to a group of girls that are “popular”, they eventually start saying she can’t be like them just because of what she wears.  

The Pursuit of Happyness is about  a man that goes broke and tries to support his family. Going through all the struggle the only motivation he has is his son, his only child, his only family member left.

This film passes the test that I made up.  At least two black males that talk to each other about motivation. In the film there is a certain scene that shows Chris Gardner and his son playing basketball. Chris tells his child, “You got a dream you gotta protect it .”

THE DEFINITION OF HAPPY-NESS

In my last post, I addressed the topic of gun violence and school shootings. Within the last month, there have been many developments, in state laws, but also with student activism in response to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting and others.

States are beginning to act on gun laws and gun reform. For example, in Oregon, the state senate passed a law that made it illegal for any people convicted of domestic abuse and violence to own a gun. In Washington, a bill was filed to raise the age to own a semiautomatic weapon with “tactical features” to 21 instead of 18. In Texas, a governor is working with the Texas Education Agency to make sure all schools have safety procedures and fully working security systems.

On Wednesday, March 14th, many students chose to walk out of school, some for 17 minutes to honor those who died in the Parkland shooting, or for much longer to evoke change with gun laws. While some schools allowed their students to walk out, other administrators threatened detentions and punishments. However, no matter the repercussions, thousands of students around the country walked out of their schools.

My school, SLA, participated in the walkout as well. Organized completely by students, the walkout included speakers such as Pennsylvania State Senator Vince Hughes, activist Sheila Simmonds, BSU President Zoey Twey, and SLA Student Government members Tamir Harper and Ella Burrows. Students gathered in the alleyway outside of school with signs and posters to protest.

SLA student walkout.

After the walkout officially ended, some SLA students went back into school, but hundreds marched to City Hall to join with students from Central, Masterman, Palumbo, CAPA, Freire, and other schools around the city.

Gathering at City Hall before marching to School District Headquarters.

With signs, megaphones, chants like “Books not Bullets!”, “The NRA is not okay!”, “Hold hands not guns!”, students protested outside of the Philadelphia School District building, and then at City Hall once again. We blocked off entire sections of Market and Broad Street as we marched to honor victims of gun violence and to provoke change in laws. The fact that this effort was entirely orchestrated by students shows how strong youth leadership really is.

Going back to City Hall from School District headquarters at 440 N. Broad Street.

On March 24th, the Philadelphia March for Our Lives was a part of more than 800 national and international protests for gun control. From 5th and Market to Lombard Circle, thousands of people gathered together in solidarity to keep the pressure up for political change and stricter gun laws.

For part of my original research, I went to this march and interviewed different people. Here is the transcript of the 6 interviews I conducted. Most of the questions asked were things like, “What do you think of the march today?” or “Why is this issue important to you?”.

One woman, holding a March for Our Lives sign, talked about how she is excited about young people leading, but wished there was more representation of people of color and gun violence outside of mass shootings. “I’m really excited to be in a march and be following the leadership of young people. I had hoped to see more young people of color being represented, in terms of speakers, and some of the issues that have been going on in Philadelphia outside of certain mass shooting kinda things...I think that there is a really important area for collaboration here, and using the leverage from this broader nation discussion to address both sets of issues, the mass shooting, and also the daily drip of police violence of gun violence that is not done by AK-47s that is happening in our neighborhoods and schools here in Philadelphia.”

Woman with “March for Our Lives” Sign.

People of all ages were at the march as well. I interviewed a young girl holding a sign that said “Going to school shouldn’t be scary.” When asked about what the march means to hershe said, “Well, my friend Matthew just did a project on the shooting at Columbine, and it made me really sad”.

Young girl with pink “going to school shouldn’t be scary” sign.

Another person I was very lucky to interview was Mayor Jim Kenney. He was walking through the crowds of people, and my friend Noor pointed him out. We walked over and asked if we could interview him. “How do you feel about the amount of people that die on our streets due to gun violence?”  “Obviously one death is one death too many...we’re here because there are too many guns on our streets and in our society, but the thing I feel good about is that I have less time ahead of me than I have behind me, and you guys are stepping up to lead...I feel very comfortable that when I am retired, you guys will be in charge because what’s in charge now is a disgrace. You’re empathetic, you care about each other, you treat each other with respect and kindness.”

A sign on a dog reads, “Adopting me took: A background check, 4 references, A home visit by the agency, $400 fee, and a month’s wait. The opposite side of the sign says, “Why is it harder to get a dog than obtain a gun?”

The Bechdel Test is a a set of rules that include these 3 simple guidelines: The has to have at least two women in it, who talk to each other, and talk  about something besides a man. The Bechdel was created by Liz Wallace and introduced by Alison Bechdel in 1985. During this time, the test became a huge discussion in feminist circles and, later,  became known internationally in Sweden. Simply, the test came from two women conversing with each other about something other than men. Support for women with big roles is very rare in this decade. In 2011, eleven out of the top one-hundred movies had film leads.

The Mako Mori test judges test, following these guidelines: at least on female character, a female who gets her own narrative arc, the plot is not about supporting a man’s story. It was created on tumblr in the middle of a conversation between Chaila and spider-xan. Both blogger usernames. Spider-xan was questioning feminist critiques on the portrayal of women in the film Pacific Rim. The film had already failed the Bechdel test because the women in the film never spoke to each other. Spider-xan was against the Bechdel Test because the film did have a woman of color who had a well developed role in the film. Chailia supported spiders-xan reason and came up with a test that only addresses the character development of female characters in movies. From 2013 and forward, the Mako Mori test was supported in the film fan community.

The film I reviewed is ¨Straight Outta Compton.¨ Straight outta compton is a biopic of the huge rap group in the mid 80s called NWA. The film tells the story of how five young black men from Compton grew into successful rap artist and used their platform to talk about police brutality and the hood. Straight Outta Compton received major success, receiving $129,402,415 at the boxoffice and great ratings from critics. It being a huge film in 2015, I wanted to closer analysis. Though the film is centered around three men, Straight Outta Compton was lacking in female representation. There was more scenes where a female is being treated as property you can buy or make fun of. I did not want to base my analysis only on my own observations and opinions so I decided to watch the film again. This time, I watched the film and judged it on the Bechdel Test. The Bechdel Test is a a set of rules that include these 3 simple guidelines: The has to have at least two women in it, who talk to each other, and talk  about something besides a man. Now there are numerous women to come up in Straight Outta Compton with the groupies, girlfriends, wives, and mothers. Their were even scenes that had a room full of women. The only issue is that none of got more than 2 phrases to say. No full sentences or scene of them by themselves. Most of the scene that did involve women were scenes that show women in sexual acts. The girls were all naked getting tossed around by men. They even had a scene where a man came to a hotel room looking for his girlfriend. After a long standoff that involve pointing guns, the group yanked the girl out of the room with nothing on but panties. There were a galore of scenes that showed girls being lusted on, taking off their clothes, and worshipping men. Now some may argue that these females in the film chose to be treated like that. It's true but the fact that those are the only kind of females that are shown in a biopic tells me that NWA did not respect women. Two of them had girlfriends that were in the background with nothing more than two lines in the whole film. Everytime I women spoke it was about how successful a man is, building the male ego. Straight Outta Compton is a great movie because it truly shows what happens behind the scenes of some of the biggest names in music. How objective women are treated in the entertainment industry is disgusting.

INDEPENDENT WOMAN test

A test for movies where the protagonist is the female. Films where there's a independent female lead, who isn’t a victim of violence by men, and goals aren't to find a man or get revenge. It is important for a film to meet this criteria because children need to see more representation of strong independent females in films. Every movie I saw with a female lead, she either conforming to masculine standards in order to progress, abused by a man, or apart of a team. In society today, the standards forced on women has never changed. From elementary school to careers, women are taught to be in competition against other women in all aspects in life. For a lady, you have to dress the best, be more successful, have the biggest butt and chest, and ultimately, get married with children before 30. It's a toxic mindset that is carried over through generations like a curse and a lot women go through life fighting in a game they can’t win. Since films are one of the major media outlets in the world, it's important for them to have better representation of all women and not just the ones who confide their worth in man or pleasure. The last movie I ever saw where the main female had a strong lead was the Hunger Games. Though it's a great film to review, I felt that most films with independent female leads always had the female in violent situations. “She has to have a weapon and kill the bad guys because a strong female is a female that knows how to use a gun.” This quote represents americas definition for strong female leads in media. I wanted to use a movie that has a strong female role in other areas besides violence.

Black Swan

A movie that pases the Indepent WOMAN test is Black Swan. Not only does it have an independent female lead but a strong plot. Black Swan is about this ballerina who won a audition for a show called, “Black Swan.” Everyone in the film thought of her as being this fragile girl who is easy to manipulate but she ends up proving them all wrong. The protagonist takes on the mental component of winning the role and have hallucinations of her turning into a swan, indulging in her deepest desire, and  even killing someone. Black Swan has a strong symbolic story that confuses a lot and make you want to watch it a few more times to catch things you probably missed. You can tell that the writers behind this movie took a lot of time to artistically create the beginning and end of perfection. The only conflict is that she lost the ability to understand what is real and fake. In the end, she morphs into this strong woman without the help of a man or friends. This is why Black Swan passes the Independent WOMAN test. I don't want to spoil too much of the film, Id rather yall watch to see what I mean.

If you are reading this you have probably read my first blog post. If not HERE is a link to it you should read it to get background info on the topic. My previous blog post talked about four major things.  I first talked about how the geography of Ecuador and how it affects its economy. I also focused on how important oil is to the Ecuadorian economy. Once that topic was established, I connected it to how oil companies were leaving the country in shambles as they left.

After I did my first piece on this topic, I felt even more compelled to study and explore this topic. To achieve learning more about the Ecuadorian oil crisis I did two things. The first was fully watch and annotate the 2009 documentary “Crudo”. If you do not know, “Crudo” is a documentary that follows an Ecuadorian lawyer named Pablo Fajardo, fighting against oil companies such a Chevron. This documentary showed me two points of view of the fight against oil companies in Ecuador. I got to see the legal perspective from Pablo. He showed us how he interviewed hundreds of people to get the case as strong as possible. On top of this, he documented him and an Ecuadorian native preparing to go to court in New York.

                                        Here  is a photo of Pablo Fajardo testifiing aginst Chevron

The next perspective I got to see this wonderful documentary was the native perspective. Hearing from real people that were living in the Ecuadorian Amazon really puts everything into perspective. The stories that were told on camera where heart-wrenching. The sad thing is the people that were interviewed are most likely dead now, due to cancer and other complications caused by the oils toxins.

  Here is a Crudo add

I also learned an amazing fact from this documentary. I found out that the 18 million gallons spilled in oil spilled in Ecuador is actually bigger  than the Exxon Valdes Spill which was 11   million gallons. Putting all the oil spilled in Ecuador as the second largest oil based catastrophes when compared to US oils spills, and around the 15th biggest oil catastrophe in the entire world. Now, remember every other oil spill on this list happened in a matter of days and was eventually cleaned up. The oil spilling in Ecuador has been spiling for 30 years and there has been barely any plans to clean up the mess.

                       Here   is a photo of the Exxon Valdes spill                           

Once the sheer size of this was brought to my attention I knew what my original research had to be. I decided to interview my Grandfather who is an Ecuadorian native.  He was the best candidate because he is actually in Ecuador and I would be able to see the state of this crisis in 2018. The interview with my grandfather was wonderful. I was able to learn some new ideas from this interview. I have decided to share the most important quote from the interview  “We do need fundamental reforms immediately...We are all waiting for this president, that is backed by most of the country to make decisions that are beneficial to this Country.”. I feel like this summarizes many peoples feeling in Ecuador.

Once I strengthened my knowledge about the Oil Crisis, I had to find what my agent of change project could be. After some thinking, I decided that I might do a screening of “Crudo”. I will get in contact with the Crudo organization and see if they accept donations. If so I will sell tickets for a small amount of money and all proceeds will go to the fund. I have decided that a screening of the documentary would help bring attention to the Oil spills.

I hope you have enjoyed reading my post and that you learned something. HERE  is the link to my annotated bibliography

The Bechdel Test is a way of evaluating if a movie or film portrays women in a way that is sexist or characterized by gender stereotyping. In order for a movie or film to pass the bechdel test the movie must feature two women and they must talk to each other about a topic other than a man.

The Mako Mori Test is considered a media test which analyzes that have these different requirements:

• At least one female character

• She gets her own narrative arc

• And it's not about supporting man's story

I think these test exist to show how women are represented and portrayed when during a film. Also when the different films do not pass these test it shows lack of diversity.

Frozen:

This 2013 film ¨Frozen¨ that is produced by Walt Disney which tells a story about a princesses who goes on a journey and gets into an ´icy´ situation. Anna and Elsa are the main characters in this film. They are both sisters and grow up to be really close. These two sisters must be separated in order for Elsa's ice powers to be hidden. Anna eventually meets her true love Hans and they fall in love. Elsa on the other hand, is having trouble controlling her powers and she decides to run away to the mountains. She began to accept her powers and began to ¨let it go¨ Considering the main factors of this movie, I believe that this movie passes the bechdel test because Anna and Elsa mainly talk about building a snowman, isolation, or going back home.

The test I would create would be called the BBT (black beauty test). In order for a film or movie to pass this test it has to include one African American couple that does not involve any abuse and stays together until the end of the movie. The reason I made my test like this is because I observe a lot of movies that  have African American couples but the man is always abusing the women and they always end up happily ever after or separate.

A movie that would pass this BBT test would be the movie Barbershop. This movie is a popular comedy. The barbershop is owned by Calvin (Ice Cube) and it is a family business that his dad passed down to him. He thinks the barbershop is a waste of time so he decides that he wants to sell it to someone else. After awhile, he realizes that selling his father's barbershop wasn't in his best interest and he sees everything go downhill. Calvin has a son and a loving wife. Who is to say that couples don't argue and get into petty arguments because they do. But that shouldn't mean he can put his hands on her, which he didn't. They talked it out like a ´normal´ couple. So considering all of this, the movie Barbershop has passed the BBT test.

The test I am creating is diving into the extras in movies and determining how do they impact the inequality or issue in the movie particulartly in a relationship. Are they around trying to help, or are they around allowing the physical and verbal abuse happen because of the main character’s position. I am calling this test the Outsider’s Reaction Test. If a film passes this test(needed at least a complete ⅔ rating) then the film has shown the outsiders involved did what they could to help the victim who is most likely loss in his/her abusive relationship. If the film fails(under a ⅔ rating) then this shows that the outsiders/extras in the film kept quiet and saw but didn’t react to their friend, associate, or another human being period being involved in a unfair, abusive relationship. I will dive into why (if the film fails) the extras decided to keep quiet instead of helping out a person of need.

The test requirements are...

1. The gender of who is being abused has people of the opposite gender trying to help out.

2. The gender of who is being abused has people of the same gender trying to help out.

3. The abusive relationship impacts the victim’s  family and friend relationships.

Movie #1: What’s Love Got To Do With It

This movie surrounds the interesting life of Tina Turner from when she was a little girl raised by her grandmother to her rise to stardom with soon to be husband Ike Turner. Ike and Tina Turner became a hit, making top songs such as Proud Mary and Fool In Love. Everything seemed great, they were at the peak of both careers, making good money, and seemed to be happily married. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case. Ike begin to use drugs which was quite popular in the music industry back in time after having so much success and wealth. This was reportedly the cases where Ike Turner would go on rages and argue to a point with Tina that he resulted to use his strength to physically overpower her. Beating her multiple times, and it was reported that it got so bad that it wasn’t behind close doors anymore, he would abuse her verbally and physically in front of their friends. Tina promised Ike she wouldn’t leave in the beginning of their relationship when he explained to her how so many people that benefited from him would walk away after some time. Tina, in love with Ike felt bad and never wanted to repeat such actions to hurt him again and she stated in an interview on The Jonathan Ross Show that she stayed for so long because of that promise she made to him. She wanted to help Ike, yet she was just keeping herself in a situation to get hurt. This movie places males above women, as Ike took over Tina life as they got into a relationship and formed the iconic music group of Ike and Tina. Also, in this movie Ike keeps an entourage around him, most are his security or bandmates. It is obvious in the movie that everyone, including her sisters, friends knew about Ike Turner violent ways towards Tina Turner. Of course many friends wanted her to get away but there were many on Ike side that didn’t really put in effort to stop the pain emotionally and physically he was causing Tina.

Outsider’s Reaction Test(My Test) What’s Love Got To Do With It Rating

1. The gender of who is being abused has people of the opposite gender trying to help out. Rate:0

2. The gender of who is being abused has people of the same gender trying to help out. Rate:1

3. The abusive relationship impacts other family and friends relationships:½

Total: 1.5/3 FAILED

After rewatching Tina Turner’s biopic, I feel this film failed my test because of Ike’s power and control over his entourage. His position was the leader, he made people famous and received the respect because of it. Also, he was a violent man. Nobody wanted to deal with him on that level when he’s cutting them a check that helped them pay their bills. Their decision was just to mind their business as their loyalty began with Ike, not Tina. In Ike’s life, with his fame women came and went, they weren’t going to risk their relationship with Ike over females that was Ike’s business, which I don’t agree with but I can understand.

Bechdel Test: This test asks a work of fiction features at least two woman that converse about something other than a man or surrounding what that man does and impacts the movie. This test comes from the idea that women in movies majority of the times are shown by their relations with a male character in the movie.

The Bechdel Test requirements are…

1. The movie has to have at least two women in it.

2. Who talk to each other.

3. Conversation is about something other than a man

This test exists because it creates awareness on not the amount of roles of women in movies but the stories behind them in the movie. For example, in Tina Turner this movie would be nothing without Ike coming into her life. Her conversations with his sister, mother, friends, and more were mostly over Ike Turner and how things were getting worse in their lives behind the fame.

Mako Mori Tests: This test was brought about in 2013 by chalia on Tumblr user who questioned feminist critiques of the depiction of women in movies, in this situation it was the movie Pacific Rim. The goal of this test is to determine what is truly a strong woman in film.

The Mako Mori Test is a media test which analyzes films in the following ways…

1. At least one female character

2. Who gets her own narrative arc;

3. That is not about supporting a man’s story

This test exists because it begins the search for strong women in films and making sure they have an impactful role in a movie without the surrounding of a man. It changes the conversation on a “strong woman” in a film by making movies create a backstory for a woman based off of her life and even make men apart of the film because of their relationship to her instead of the typical vice versa.       

Movie #2: Pretty Woman

Pretty Woman is a movie starring a prostitute and wealthy businessman falling in love with each other, creating a relationship that the outside looks at as unhealthy and unlikely. They both live in what looks like to be different worlds, more respectful and proud achievements for Edward and for Vivian she is known hooker who has a backstory of men who were attracted to the sexual experience she made available to them for money. Edward hires Vivan to stay with him for a weekend, the two gets closer and this is when the number one rule of prostitution is broken, never share a kiss as this shows a sign that there is love besides romantically. Obviously because of there two different lifestyles, there are a lot of differences and barriers for them to work through just to get through what was only suppose to the weekend.

The Bechdel Test requirements are…

1. The movie has to have at least two women in it. Rate: 1

2. Who talk to each other. Rate:1

3. Conversation is about something other than a man Rate:0

Total: ⅔ PASSED

The Mako Mori Test is a media test which analyzes films in the following ways…

1. At least one female character Rate:1

2. Who gets her own narrative arc; 1

3. That is not about supporting a man’s story 1

3/3 PASSED

Pretty Woman passes both the Becdel and Mako Mori test requiremnts in my eyes because the movie is based off of BOTH Edward and Vivian life. Now of course, Edward brings Vivian into another world by hiring her to be his woman for the weekend, but it’s her backstory that creates the bumps and diversity of lifestyles in the story. Basically, Vivan’s role is as big as Edward role in the Pretty “Woman”. The movie cannot be created completely without Edward and Vivian. Pretty Woman passes the Mako Mori Test more than Bechdel Test however. Even though Vivian has her own backstory and purpose in the beginning, once Edward comes into her life, Vivian falls into trying to change herself to suit his lifestyle but she has to do this as this is what she was paid to do. She’s attractive and lights up the room with her beauty, this is her purpose of the weekend with Edward.

The rationale behind the Bechdel Test and the Mako Mori test is to regulate the movies that are coming out. They are checking that movies aren’t misrepresenting certain groups in films. When movies don't meet pass test like the Mako Mori test and the Bechdel Test that shows there might not be that much diversity in films. Even if a film does not meet the Bechdel or the Mako Mori test that doesn't mean that the movie is not good. The Bechdel test is a checklist for movies the requirements are: it has to have at least two women in it. The women have to talk to each other. And lastly when they talk to each other it has to be about something other than a man.

The disney movie Frozen meets the Bechdel test. The movie Frozen is about two sisters who after losing their parents have step up to the responsibilities of running a kingdom. The older sister Elsa has had special powers all her life which makes her distance herself from her younger sister Ana. Ana doesn’t fully understand why her sister is so distant and all she really wants is to have a sister relationship with Elsa that they had when they were younger. In the movie Ana and Elsa are the main characters which meets rules number one of the Bechdel test. The sisters talk to each other in the movie about how different things are going to now that they are in control of the kingdom that’s meets the requirement of talking to each other and having a conversation about something other than a man.

My test is called the Pretty Woman test. The three requirements are that there is a woman who has a job that is not socially acceptable but still gets respected. Secondly, the man must be able to have conversations other than work. Lastly the woman has to have a friend that helps her stay connected to reality. The movie Pretty Woman with Julia Roberts and Richard Gere meets this test. In the movie Julia plays a hooker who falls in love with the success businessman, Richard Gere after leaving a business party in Los Angeles.  The first requirement of the Pretty Woman test is that there is a woman has a job that is not socially acceptable. Julia Roberts plays a hooker, in society people who are prostitutes/hookers are disrespected and look down on. After they both take a liking in each other Richard Gere offers to give her better life. This conversation meets the second rule that talks about something other than work. Julia has a friend who she works with that visits her while she stays with Richard. Her friend reminds her of her life before she met Richard and how things will be after he leaves. The third requirement is that there is a friend that connects her to her real life.

This movie Dangal is about a Phogat family, telling the story of Mahavir Singh Phogat, an amateur wrestler. who trained his daughters Geeta and Babita to become India's first world-class female wrestlers.Mahavir Singh Phogat is a former wrestler and national champion in the in Haryana. He was forced by his father to give up the sport. Mahavir was very disappointed that he could not win a medal for his country, he vows that his unborn son will. Disappointed upon having four daughters, he gives up hope. One day when his older daughters Geeta and Babita come home after beating up two boys because they said hurtful comments, he starts to realize their potential to become wrestlers and begins coaching them. People always made fun of Geeta and her sister Babita. They would say stuff like, “you are a girl. Girls don’t do stuff like this.” The sisters started to lose friends.

Mahavir’s methods for his daughters are harsh. They have to do early morning workouts and cut their hair short to avoid lice. Despite facing negativity from the villagers, he still goes on with them and trains them in his makeshift mud pit. Geeta and Babita start to resent their father for his treatment but they soon start to realize that he wants them to have a good future and not grow up to be stereotypical housewives. Motivated, they willingly participate in his coaching. Mahavir takes his daughters to wrestling tournaments where they wrestle with boys and defeat them. He is unable to afford for wrestling mats so he uses two layers of mattresses and trains them.

Geeta goes on to win the junior and senior championships at the State. Then she heads to the National Sports Academy in Patiala to train for the forthcoming Commonwealth Games. Geeta makes friends and begins to disregard the rules and discipline she has been brought up with by her father. She starts to regularly watch television, eats street food, and grows her hair out. Her coach's training methods and wrestling techniques are very different from her father's. Geeta thinks they are better than her father’s techniques. When she went home, Geeta told her father that his old techniques are not good, she defeats her aging. Babita tells Geeta that she shouldn't forget their father's techniques and reminds her that she owes all the success and happiness to him. Babita follows Geeta to the academy. Geeta, however, is losing every match at the international level.  Geeta is persuaded by Babita, and she tearfully makes a better relationship with her father.

Using Mahavir’s techniques Geeta wins the Championship competition. She becomes the first Indian Women wrestler to win gold medals at the Games.

This movie Dangal does pass the Bechdel test. In the movie there are two girls Geeta and Babita. They try to be better than guys, They don’t have a certain type of interaction with guys. Dangal also passes The Mako Mori test. Like I said before this is a story about two girls becoming successful. It doesn’t support another man's story.  

This movie ghostbusters is about paranormal activities that happens in Manhattan. A group of women stop and saves the city from getting destroyed. Ghostbusters does pass my own test. My test is called “Superior.” My test is about women’s strength. And how women can be stronger and more superior than men. In this four girls saved a city from destruction. My test is kind of self explanatory. If a movie is about women achieving goals that men can achieve then it passes the test. Ghostbusters passes it.

Using the Bechdel Test and Mako Mori Tests we can determine the amount of representation of women in films. The Bechdel Test uses three simple requirements, 1) are there two women in it that have names? 2) do they talk to each other, and 3) do they talk about something other than a man? The Mako Mori test goes in a little deeper asking a) is there at least one female character; b) who gets her own narrative arc; c) that is not about supporting a man’s story? You look at these two tests and think that they’re simple enough, any movie would pass. But that is not the case. These tests exist because there are people that believe women are everywhere in film, have great stories being told about them, and that women are represented. These tests were created and exist to prove those people wrong, to show them that there is a problem with how women are represented in films.

One movie that I realized does not pass the Bechdel or Mako Mori tests is Now You See Me 2. Now You See Me 2 follows the story of four illusionists known as the Four Horsemen. After fleeing from a stage show, the Horsemen find themselves in more trouble in Macau, China. A deceitful tech genius Walter Mabry forces the skilled magicians to steal a powerful chip that can control all of the world's computers. Meanwhile, the vengeful FBI agent Dylan Rhodes hatches his own plot against Thaddeus Bradley, the man he blames for the death of his father. This movie does meet the Bechdel or Mako Mori tests because out of all of the main characters, only one is a woman. In this movie there are three women that have roles with lines, but none of them ever have a conversation with one another. Therefore it only meets ⅓ of the requirements for the Bechdel test. As for the Mako Mori test, there is at least one female character, but none of them have their own narrative arc that doesn’t support a mans story. This movie only has ⅓ of the requirements for the Mako Mori test. As a result, this movie passes neither tests.

As for my test that I have created, the following are the requirements:

1. There is at least one woman-

2. That is not white-

3. That is not straight-

4. That talks to another woman-

5. About something other than a man.

This movie follows three women that come from very different situations and lives. After breaking up with her girlfriend, a nightclub singer, Jane, answers a personal ad from Robin, a real estate agent with AIDS, seeking a cross-country travel partner. On their way from New York City to Los Angeles, the two stop by Pittsburgh to pick up Jane’s friend Holly, who is trying to escape an abusive relationship. With three wildly distinct personalities, the women must overcome their differences to help one another in times of need. This movie passes my test because it has more than one woman, a woman of color, a woman that is not straight, and they all talk to each other about something other than a man. They talk about their lives and the struggles they face within their lives. I believe it is important for any film to meet this criteria because there is way too little representation in movies with women of color, women that are gay, and just women that have stories about them.

Ryan King

Intersectional Feminism

Film Review

Over time films have shown a common theme of having women assume either love interest roles or subservient roles to men.Having seen so many different films showcasing woman as only being necessary for these kinds of positions people like Alison Bechdel and the fictional Mako Mori have created test to analyze how often that women are actually represented in more diverse roles other than being a tool used by men to achieve a stereotypical goal.These test exist to give directors an idea of what modern consumers want to see, strong independent women who are not constantly fixating over the attention of a man.

Frozen is a popular Disney movie about the relationship between two sisters and and their roads to self acceptance.Many people are very excited about the film because this is the first time in disney history where we see two strong and self sufficient women who do not rely on men to accomplish goals and have their own interesting character arcs.Every other time we are introduced to females with these credentials they are usually portrayed to either be a villain or antagonist character, but Frozen changes that stereotype.Frozen is one of my favorite movies because director Jennifer Lee made sure that the film did more than just pass the Bechdel test.She made sure that everyone watching the movie would be able to see a piece of themselves in one of the main characters.Lee accomplishes this goal by changing the entire narrative of princesses being saved by their Prince Charming,Instead she chooses to have Elsa save Anna with a true act of love rather than just true loves kiss.

3) Create your own anti-gender bias film test, describe the criteria for your test and explain why you believe it is important for a film to meet this criteria. Analyze a different movie that meets the criteria for your test.

The film must have the following to pass the King Test

• Two named people of color

• Who don't feed into stereotypical behavior

For the movie “the Place beyond the Pines” I would say that this movie does pass both the King test and the Bechdel test.This movie is about a thief who steals to support his small family and his partners antics to stay above the law.The movie takes a sudden shift when half way through Ryan Gosling is killed and his estranged girlfriend and son live their lives.the movie gets really interesting when Ryan's son and the cop who accidentally killed him while on the job wind up in the same highschool and start to piece together stories their families have shared with them before realizing that his bestfriends dad killed his dad. I feel like this movie has passed my test because the director takes really interesting measures to make the cast very diverse.Instead of having minorities be the theives in the movie they become more of protagonist aids and still remain very critical to the movie.

A modern day feminist film review

In this socially developing day and age, we find more reasons to dissect the beliefs , cultures and practices that surround us in everyday life, especially in technology. People are more aware than ever of the subliminal messages used in advertising, movies, songs, etc. that embed themselves in our subconscious and shape our perspective and how we interpret situations. A product of these detections is the Mako Mori and Bechdel Tests, where we are forced to look in from, for some, a relatively unfamiliar perspective. Both of these inventions are the result of something, that something being most closely related to the misogyny and toxic masculinity constantly portrayed in the media. More often than not, in American media a woman’s most frequent roles include being obedient, submissive, and important only if they are talking about a man. The Mako Mori method tests the inclusivity of well developed female characters that don’t contribute to a man’s story. The bechdel test follows a similar dynamic, asking whether a work of fiction has at least two women can share dialogue that doesn’t involve the topic of men.

If the question is why these tests must exist, you’ll find that it’s much easier to recover a time you watched a movie that involved men, whose main purpose wasn’t to get a woman’s attention or please them, but in fact the women just happen to be a factor in their story. Take the movie 50/50, for instance. Adam, a middle aged man who prided himself in his health has his life turned around when malignant tumors are found in his spine, docking his mortality rate by 50%. Along with his family, he tries to keep good spirits, even though everyone around him is prepared for the worst. He falls for his therapist, one of the three women represented in the entire movie. Aside from talking about Adam’s doctor, who is notably also male, his therapist and mother don’t discuss anything that isn’t regarding the main character or the supporting male roles. Enough information is given to conclude that this movie doesn’t pass either the mako mori or bechdel test, and it can’t be blamed on the plot of the movie, the year it came out, the actors, etc. It’s a combination of the choices made by the director, audience, and culture of hollywood movies in general.

The reclamation test

Based on how women are represented and depicted in a majority of these movies, I have decided to test how relevant a female character becomes or how her character diminishes when a male character is eliminated, regardless of if they’re main characters or not. It’s important that this criteria is met, because it shows the audience that a woman’s role doesn’t always have to be temporary or niche. There’s often little diversity in the role of a woman, she only displays a limited number of emotions and concerns, which frequently reflects the actions in the role of a man. To show that a female character can develop freely, without any other permission than the progression of the plot itself, sends a more positive and encouraging message to viewers furthermore changing the way in which they’re influenced by movies.

Lady bloodfight

This movie is about an American woman, Jane, who travels to Hong Kong to fulfill her destiny of becoming a champion in the fight of the “Kumite”, an underground, full-contact martial arts competition for women. The movie focuses on another integral relationship regarding her trainer Shu, who is also a woman. Shu and her rival Wai both compete for the throne by training students like Jane to battle on their behalf.The judges of the competition worry themselves only with the monetary reward the popularity will bring, and therefore allow the fights to be limitless, brutal, and often fatal. Nearing the end of the story, we come to find that Shu and Wei were at each other’s necks for so long because Wei blamed Shu for the death of her brother, which was ruled as a suicide that nobody could wrap their heads around. Jane further investigates, and finds that one of the corrupt judges not only had to do with Wei’s brother’s death, but also the death of her own father, who traveled to Hong Kong many years before to battle in the same competition. Jane brings the man to public confession at the end of the final battle, ending the long-time contention between Shu and Wei and bringing honor to her father. Despite the main character’s motives being in the likeness of men, this information wasn’t relevant until the end of the movie. Up until then, the women trained and fought because they felt it was in their hearts to do so, to teach and learn internal peace and contentedness. Jane’s father, Wei’s brother, and the evil judge had relevance throughout the movie, sure, but they weren’t permanent or centerpieces for less than half of it. The only character that was physically seen was the evil judge, and even then his presence was quickly dismissed. The movie passes the reclamation test with flying colors because of this, because each female character was strong enough on their own, and for a change the male characters were only relevant because of the female’s role.