Forget The Bechdel Test: we can do a lot better

Wonder Woman is like any other superhero movie. Overdone costumes. Sketchy plotlines. And cringy dialogue. There’s nothing that special about it really. Only there is. For women and girls, the world over the film was potentially life-changing. For many of us, Wonder Woman was the first film where we truly saw a badass female lead.

Unsplash by Keenan Constance

When I first watched the Wonder Woman reboot in June 2017 I sat wide-eyed barely blinking throughout the whole film. I finally felt as though Hollywood got me. Like really got me.

I was 27 years old.

I liked the way that movie made me feel so much, I went back to watch it several times.

It was refreshing. Because although superheroes don’t really exist. Wonder Woman better reflected the women I knew in my life. And those women never needed a man to save them.

I grew up in the 90s.

And for those of you who weren’t alive in the 90s. That means I grew up watching Toy Story, Space Jam, and The Lion King where all the leads — human or not — are male. Even The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe is grounded in patriarchy albeit that C.S. Lewis admirably developed the character, Lucy.

I doubt a saw a film that passed The Bechdel Test before I was in my late teens. Bend it Like Beckham, The…