It’s the twentieth anniversary of the BBC’s Robin Hood, which aired its first episode on the 26th April, 2006. In the leadup to this date, I’ve been trying to think up ways of commemorating the occasion, and along with linking last year’s ranking of the show’s thirty-nine episodes on Tumblr, I’ve edited together all the scenes of the show passing the Bechdel Test:
And because I’m anal retentive about this sort of thing, here’s a second video of female characters on the show not passing the Bechdel Test:
As I’m sure you know, the Bechdel-Wallace Test is a metric designed to measure the role of women and their interactions within any give media. For a work of fiction to pass the test, it requires a) two women who b) have a conversation about c) something other than a man.
It’s obviously not a fail-proof method of ensuring that your story will be a feminist triumph, as plenty of awful films can throw in a couple of superfluous lines between two women discussing local news, while superior films can fail the test by dint of having only a single female character. It is not a way to judge the quality of stories themselves, and was never designed to be in the first place. It’s no more or less than an interesting thought experiment, and a baseline gauge of how female characters are written.
I found it quite fascinating to parse Robin Hood through the requirements of the Bechdel Test, though you won’t be surprised to learn it wasn’t a sterling example of the test in action (it clocked in at seven minutes and ten seconds of women talking to each other in a show that ran for approximately 1,755 minutes altogether). Still, sometimes you have to be realistic about what a story is trying to offer. This was always skewed towards a young male demographic, and you could probably say the same for most Robin Hood adaptations.
Still, that doesn’t mean I’m not interested in the role of women in this show, which is why I put together this edit in the first place. And I have by necessity been very generous with the conditions of the test…
These days, some people believe that women depicted onscreen have to have names in order to pass the Bechdel test, or that they have to have a conversation of substance (that is, they can’t just comment on the weather or order something from a waitress). Others stipulate that the conversation must last more than thirty seconds, and there’s plenty of debate about what constitutes a man in the context of these discussions.
Obviously the test discounts male love interests and family members, but what if a man is discussed in the context of political strategy or warfare? What if the women are talking about an enemy they’re trying to defeat? How about an unborn child whose sex is unknown? Or a man who is secretly a woman in disguise? What if two women are in a conversation with a single male character, bouncing their words off each other? Is it a pass if a man isn’t explicitly mentioned, but the conversation is still clearly about him?
Some commentators also believe that the passing of the test should be a positive thing, which means any verbal abuse between two women automatically disqualifies the conversation.
If I held Robin Hood up to these exacting standards, then frankly, it would not pass at all. So, for the purposes of this video’s existence, the female characters featured do not have to be named onscreen, and the conversations don’t have to be particularly lengthy or involved.
Even so, there were a few complications, and I had to get extremely pernickety at times. By my standards, there must be TWO consecutive lines of dialogue, one from EACH of the women participating in the exchange, that do NOT reference a man in any way. If one female character makes a comment to another that doesn’t include a man, but the second woman’s response DOES, then it’s an overall fail.
This could get extremely frustrating, as it necessitated some delicate editing around certain conversations and disqualified more than a few to boot. A good example is Isabella and Meg’s scene on the steps of Nottingham Castle:
Isabella: Meg Bennett, the Sheriff’s court has heard of your disobedience to your father and your refusal to accept any suitors he chose for you. (fail)
Meg: Lady Sheriff, one was a drunken sot, the second looked like a donkey, and the third was a halfwit with the brains of a tree! (fail)
Isabella: And the fourth you apparently bribed to go back to York with the money you stole from your father. (fail)
Meg: He was a mummy’s boy. What use is that? (fail)
Isabella: Meg, tell the court why you’ve acted in such a deplorable fashion. (pass)
Meg: Because I won’t accept anyone telling me how to live my own life. I don’t want to marry! Men are so stupid! I think England would be a much better place if women were in charge. (fail, which also negates the previous line)
Isabella: Untie her! (fail, as it addresses the male guards)
Meg: Thank you! (pass, but negated by the previous line)
Isabella: People of Nottingham now maybe you can see the kind of Sheriff I am. And as I've set Meg here free, I intend to set the whole of Nottingham free to be a fairer more peaceful and prosperous place for us all! (fail, it’s directed at the crowd)
Isabella: [continued to Meg] You are far too bright to be locked up. I think I need people like you around me. (this would be a pass, except that Meg does not respond, and so it’s not a conversation)
Basically, if one woman utters any number of sentences without mentioning a man, only for the second woman to mention men during her half of the conversation, before the other woman speaks again, the whole conversation fails. The irony is that Matilda and Rosa simply shouting each other’s names is technically more of a pass than Meg and Isabella highlighting the unfairness of the patriarchy and the cruelty of men. Such are the pitfalls of the Bechdel Test, and why it shouldn’t be used as a measure of quality.
But this ended up being the show’s major stumbling block, especially in season three when women interacted with each other on a semi-regular basis. I actually had high hopes that Kate, her mother Rebecca, and her little sister Maggie, who are recurring guest stars that appear in more than one episode, would regularly pass the test, but as it happens, their conversations revolve exclusively around either Matthew, Robin, or the outlaws in general. (Plus, I’d forgotten that Maggie never says a word, which automatically disqualifies her).
And yet, it also made me realize that even when two women are explicitly referencing a man in their conversations, the subtext of their discussions with each other can technically be about something completely different. In the episode “Cause and Effect,” Kate and Rebecca have three separate conversations with each other, none of which pass the test, but which are actually about the broader subject of the oppressive conditions they’re living under and how they should deal with them.
Here is the transcript, with mentions of male characters in bold:
Rebecca: Kate, stop, they’ll search the cart. I’ll lose you and your brother.
Kate: You see what they’re doing. If we don’t move him now, he’ll be caught. Just stay inside. I’ll get Matthew out of here.
Later:
Kate: I’m so sorry. Robin Hood tried to save him.
Rebecca: I hope Robin Hood gets hanged from the highest gallows in Nottingham.
Kate: It won’t bring Matthew back though.
Rebecca: Robin Hood is an outlaw, he just brings trouble. They’ll be back now, the Sheriff’s men, back to make examples of the rest of us.
Kate: That doesn’t mean we should just sit here and take it!
Rebecca: That kind of talk is dangerous. That’s what’s got your brother killed.
Kate: This is my fault. Matthew died trying to save me from Gisborne.
Rebecca: What?
Kate: I went after Matthew alone, without thinking. I got Matthew killed. If I hadn’t been so stupid...
Rebecca: No, Robin Hood killed your brother with his talk of fighting for a better future.
Kate: You’re wrong. These people believe in him. Matthew believed in him. And that’s a good enough reason to help.
Rebecca: Where are you going? Kate. Robin Hood’s a criminal. Kate please, you’ll end up like your brother.
Kate: I’m not doing this for Robin Hood, I’m doing it for Matthew.
As you can see, there is no exchange which doesn’t involve mention of a man, even though these conversations ARE in fact about more than the male characters they keep referencing: they’re about a mother and daughter’s opposing views on how to respond to their situation: whether to keep their heads down and stay alive, or stand up and risk dying. And yet the show has no idea how to filter these points of view through anything other than male characters, and so the Bechdel Test isn’t passed.
The inverse is also true. Later on in the season, there are several conversations between Isabella and Rebecca, then Rebecca and Kate that pass the technical requirements of the Bechdel Test, but which are implicitly all about a man (that is, Robin Hood). Here’s the transcription:
Isabella: [about her locket] It’s pretty isn’t it? You know, sometimes the prettiest things can be the most fragile. Your daughter is an outlaw.
Rebecca: My daughter is dead to me.
Isabella: There’s no point in denying her, trust me on that.
Rebecca: What do you want with me?
Isabella: I want to help you.
Rebecca: Help me?
Isabella: Yes, safe passage to Doncaster for you and your family.
Now, there’s no mention of any male character in any of this dialogue… but there also is, as the whole thing is a leadup to Isabella convincing Rebecca into taking steps that she believes will hurt Robin Hood. It’s all implicitly about him, even though he’s never mentioned by name.
Such are the complexities of the Bechdel Test, and why it was so difficult to pick my way through some of these conversations.
Miscellaneous Observations:
As stated, I’ve included women who do not get an onscreen name, such as the village girl in “Parent Hood,” the Abbess in “The Taxman Cometh,” and the serving girl in “The Angel of Death.”
The longest sustained conversation between two women is Marian and the (fake) Mother Abbess. The two women who have the most interactions (whether or not they pass the test) is Kate and Rebecca by a country mile. Heck, they’re the only two female characters other than Matilda and Rosa that have a substantial onscreen relationship. Kate also ends up interacting with more female characters than any other woman on the show (even though she only passes the test with one of them): Rebecca, Maggie, Isabella, Ellie, and some Locksley village girls.
Aside from the featured footage, Djaq and Marian have three more interactions in the show’s entire run, none of which pass the test: a loaded glance when Djaq is captured in “Tattoo, What Tattoo?”, Djaq trying to get Marian’s attention in the casino during “Booby and the Beast,” and Marian tearfully joking that she’s beyond even Djaq’s help in “We Are Robin Hood.”
During their scene in the cave, Djaq asks: “this [wound] is not long, what did he use?” At this point Robin says: “I don’t know, I thought he punched her,” after which Marian says: “a dagger.” Even though Robin answers the question first, Djaq may have been directing it at Marian, and since she goes on to answer it, I decided the Bechdel Test is passed in this instance. Djaq later asks: “can you feel this?” but since Marian’s response is just a groan, it was not included. (Perhaps it should have been? Do exchanges have to be in words? I have no idea).
Matilda and Rosa discuss the latter’s unborn child as though it’s a boy, but since it turns out to be a girl, I’ve counted their dialogue as a pass. Conversations about Seth are also included, but only when he’s referred to in gender neutral terms (ie, “the baby,” or “the child”).
The exchange Marian has with the unnamed servant girl about the Nightwatchman is complicated. On the one hand, we know the Nightwatchman is Marian herself, even if the serving girl is unaware of this. On the other hand, the Nightwatchman they’re talking about in this instance is a male character who’s impersonating Marian’s alter-ego. Regardless, I decided to include it as the persona does belong to Marian.
On talking to Queen Eleanor, Djaq mentions “my friends,” in reference to the male outlaws, but I decided to keep this line since the term is gender neutral and the subject of the sentence is Djaq herself. Ditto Isabella’s line about Kate living with “those savages,” since the female character remains the subject of the sentence.
Talking at someone is obviously not the same thing as talking to them, and any one-sided statements or comments directed from one woman to another obviously don’t count. And this surprisingly came up a lot in this show. When Kate says goodbye to her little sister, Maggie doesn’t say a word. Isabella has an extended scene in which she gives instructions to a completely silent serving woman. And a few of Isabella’s comments to Meg aren’t given any response either.
Kate and Isabella never pass the test with each other, though I ummed and ahhed for a long time about whether or not to include their exchange in “Let the Games Commence” when they briefly comment on the elite soldiers surrounding them. On the one hand, they were discussing a threat to their lives, on the other, it was still technically about men. I eventually opted against it, since I had already cut an exchange between Djaq and Marian in “The Return of the King.” In it, Djaq says her father once told her to never lie to a wounded man, after which Marian replies: “or is it never lie to a dying man?” The spirit of the conversation is Marian’s life… but it’s filtered through Djaq's relationship with her father.
There are a few brief scenes that depict women talking to each other in the distance (Eleri and her mother in “Brothers in Arms,” and Kate and some other Lockley girls in “Lost in Translation,”) but since their words are indiscernible, they couldn’t be included.
For those keeping count, the first season has three episodes that pass the test (“Parent Hood,” “The Taxman Cometh,” and “The Return of the King,”) the second also has three (“The Angel of Death,” “Ducking and Diving,” and “Treasure of the Nation,”) and the third has two (“A Dangerous Deal” and “Something Worth Fighting For, Part I”). That’s five episodes out of thirty-nine that contain an example of passing the Bechdel Test.
That said, if I were to count every interaction between women, regardless of what they’re talking about, it wouldn’t have made a huge difference to the length of this video. There would have been more dialogue between Isabella/Meg and Kate/Rebecca, and a few snippets more between Djaq/Marian, Marian/Eve, Isabella/Kate, Kate/Ellie, … but that’s it really. In other words, the women don’t get to interact a lot, but when they do, they’re usually not talking exclusively about men anyway.
Interestingly, there are more examples of women talking to each other in season three, but less examples of them passing the Bechdel Test. In fact, there’s not a single example of two women talking throughout season two that does NOT pass the Bechdel Test, whereas scenes of women talking to each other about men across the course of season three run for almost the same length of time as the video of all three seasons of women passing the Bechdel Test.
Finally, I trust it will not escape your notice that female interactions in the first two seasons depict women listening, helping and supporting each other, while those of season three invariably involve them sniping and snarling at each other.
This was quite fun! I may do another one for the female characters on MGM’s Robin Hood, at least when that show comes to its conclusion.
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