An analysis of 1,500 films resulted in 1 disturbing conclusion.
The good news? There's definitely room to improve.
Of the many ways to measure diversity in film, one of the most informative originated as a joke in a comic. The Bechdel Test, as it's come to be known, originated in the 1985 comic strip "Dykes to Watch Out For," written by Alison Bechdel, the test's namesake.
For a film to pass the Bechdel Test, it has to meet three criteria:
There have been 16 Bechdel-passing films that have grossed more than a billion dollars worldwide.
Last year, FiveThirtyEight took a look at the financial implications of films passing the Bechdel Test. Was it possible that films that failed the test simply outperformed those that passed? Was the reason for this lack of diversity economic? No. In fact, FiveThirtyEight found that dollar for dollar, Bechdel-passing films outperformed those that didn't.
Data-sharing site Silk analyzed 1,500 films released between 2010 and 2014 using the Bechdel Test criteria. Silk then incorporated data from bechdeltest.com and an Annenburg School study for reference and historical purposes.
In 2014, just 55.4% of all films passed the Bechdel Test. This is down from 2013's 67.5% and 2012's 66.4%.
This interactive chart visualizes Silk's data by year and Bechdel status:
To use, hover your mouse over the data to see it broken down by year.
Still, just because a movie meets the Bechdel Test criteria doesn't necessarily mean that it's some sort of feminist powerhouse.
Take "Cinderella," for example.
Despite the plot of the "Cinderella" story centering almost entirely around the idea that the only way for women to find success and happiness is to marry a rich, charming prince, nearly every movie adaptation has passed the Bechdel Test with flying colors. Will the 2015 adaptation pass the test? Likely! Still, it's not exactly the next coming of "Our Bodies, Our Selves," and that's OK!
Even some films with strong female characters fail the Bechdel Test, further illustrating its imperfection as a measurement of feminist credibility.
For instance, the original "Star Wars" trilogy fails the Bechdel Test, even with badass, independent Princess Leia. The same goes for "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: Part 2," which fails despite the presence of Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley, Professor McGonagall, and Bellatrix Lestrange, all of whom are richly developed characters.
Just think of how much greater these awesome female characters could have been had they been given the same number of conversation topics and opportunities to talk with each other about things other than members of the opposite sex as their male counterparts were.
Breaking down female stereotypes in media will take more than meeting the bare minimum Bechdel Test criteria.
So long as the film industry continues to be made up primarily of white men, diversity will remain in short supply.
- In TV, less than 15% of directors are women.
- In film, men make up nearly three-quarters of leading roles and write nearly 9 out of 10 scripts.
- In the 87 years the award has been given out, only one woman has won the Academy Award for Best Directing.
Some have proposed ways to improve upon the Bechdel Test, namely the Mako Mori and Sexy Lamp Tests.
The Mako Mori Test came from Tumblr user Chaila and is based off of a character from the movie "Pacific Rim."
The rules of the Mako Mori Test are nearly as simple as those of the Bechdel Test.
The rules of the Sexy Lamp Test, created by Kelly Sue DeConnick, are even more simple.
These tests are imperfect but excellent starting points for conversations about why the film (or any) industry is the way it is.
Questioning who we are, looking at implicit bias, and working to see the world from fresh perspectives is great advice for anyone in any field. Questioning and challenging the status quo — which in this case, means asking why the entertainment industry is so very white and so very male — is the first step toward personal growth and innovation.






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Resurfaced video of French skier's groin incident has people giving the announcer a gold medal
"The boys took a beating on that one."
Downhill skiing is a sport rife with injuries, but not usually this kind.
A good commentator can make all the difference when watching sports, even when an event goes smoothly. But it's when something goes wrong that great announcers rise to the top. There's no better example of a great announcer in a surprise moment than when French skier Yannick Bertrand took a gate to the groin in a 2007 super-G race.
Competitive skiers fly down runs at incredible speeds, often exceeding 60 mph. Hitting something hard at that speed would definitely hurt, but hitting something hard with a particularly sensitive part of your body would be excruciating. So when Bertrand slammed right into a gate family-jewels-first, his high-pitched scream was unsurprising. What was surprising was the perfect commentary that immediately followed.
This is a clip you really just have to see and hear to fully appreciate:
- YouTube youtu.be
It's unclear who the announcer is, even after multiple Google inquiries, which is unfortunate because that gentleman deserves a medal. The commentary gets better with each repeated viewing, with highlights like:
"The gate the groin for Yannick Bertrand, and you could hear it. And if you're a man, you could feel it."
"Oh, the Frenchman. Oh-ho, monsieurrrrrr."
"The boys took a beating on that one."
"That guy needs a hug."
"Those are the moments that change your life if you're a man, I tell you what."
"When you crash through a gate, when you do it at high rate of speed, it's gonna hurt and it's going to leave a mark in most cases. And in this particular case, not the area where you want to leave a mark."
Imagine watching a man take a hit to the privates at 60 mph and having to make impromptu commentary straddling the line between professionalism and acknowledging the universal reality of what just happened. There are certain things you can't say on network television that you might feel compelled to say. There's a visceral element to this scenario that could easily be taken too far in the commentary, and the inherent humor element could be seen as insensitive and offensive if not handled just right.
The announcer nailed it. 10/10. No notes.
The clip frequently resurfaces during the Winter Olympic Games, though the incident didn't happen during an Olympic event. Yannick Bertrand was competing at the FIS World Cup super-G race in Kvitfjell, Norway in 2007, when the unfortunate accident occurred. Bertrand had competed at the Turin Olympics the year before, however, coming in 24th in the downhill and super-G events.
As painful as the gate to the groin clearly as, Bertrand did not appear to suffer any damage that kept him from the sport. In fact, he continued competing in international downhill and super-G races until 2014.
According to a 2018 study, Alpine skiing is a notoriously dangerous sport with a reported injury rate of 36.7 per 100 World Cup athletes per season. Of course, it's the knees and not the coin purse that are the most common casualty of ski racing, which we saw clearly in U.S. skier Lindsey Vonn's harrowing experiences at the 2026 Olympics. Vonn was competing with a torn ACL and ended up being helicoptered off of the mountain after an ugly crash that did additional damage to her legs, requiring multiple surgeries (though what caused the crash was reportedly unrelated to her ACL tear). Still, she says she has no regrets.
As Bertrand's return to the slopes shows, the risk of injury doesn't stop those who live for the thrill of victory, even when the agony of defeat hits them right in the rocks.