Populaire

The movie I chose is the french film Populaire.  The rep test pointed out many things that are lacking in this film such as prominent people of color and people with disabilities.  Because the film is based in the sixties there are no characters that are of the LGBT community.  The only other people of color is a minor character that is in the typewriting competition with the protagonist.  The protagonist Rose falls for her employer who is also coaching her in typewriting for competitions, and the only other time other women appear, they talk about the male lead, Rose’s love interest.  Specifically when Louis’ family comes over for dinner, all they talk about is their relationship and how it affects them.

The rating system does seem fair because diversity needs to be seen in film and other types of media.  It is important to see these people within the film world not as stereotypes but as people with dimension and not just shallow characters.  It also helps people of color see that they are being represented within film and media to feel part of the hegemony and social culture.  As much as America, France seems to be dominated by America’s hegemony, in other words white centric.  The formula is seen as white, blonde, and blue eyed that is used in the movie with it’s protagonist Rose.  As a matter of fact, the director and the characters are white, however, I do understand that this movie is based in the sixties and the prominence for people of color is minimal even within film.  The director for the movie Populaire is a new comer however, he is not a person of color, he is also a white male that seems to dominate the mold for a prominent movie director in film.

Gay Best Friend Representation Test

G. B. F.

Gay Best Friend

The movie GBF is about about a group of friends, including best friends Brent and Tanner, that don’t fit the popularity pattern at their school. The school is entirely dominated by a clique of girls competing to be the top of the totem pole. When all three girls in the clique realize that all they needed to be the schools top dog was a gay best friend. They all began their search. it becomes apparent to them that all the school’s gays are closeted. Meanwhile Brent tells Tanner his plan to out himself to become popular and be the class diva. Throughout the delay of his unsteady plan, Tanner is accidentally out-ed to the whole school and became the schools “token gay boy” making him outrageously popular fast. I chose GBF to asses the representation test because I thought it would pass with flying colors. By analyzing the fact that this is an independent film that it is LGBTQ themed in my opinion it should have passed with a higher rating than a B. 

The movie GBF features a boy, Tanner and his best friend Brent who both play the protagonist. There are female leads but the plot line isn't centered around them as much as the boys. All three girls that are featured in the film are skinny and show the typical figures that is portrayed in today’s media. The girls are the attention of “male gaze” in the movie. Although that isn't their primary purpose, it cannot be denied that it happens periodically throughout the movie. Another way the women’s section of the test was failed was the fact that all the girls were in high school and only a select number of characters were over forty five. The characters over forty five had no meaning to the plot or story but just contributed to small conversations. Interestingly, the conversations between the girls failed the Bechdel Test. Their conversations centered around a guy but not in the standard relationship conversation the Bechdel often refers to. The girls fought over sharing a gay best friend and not a potential suitor which is how it differs. 

The movie gets points because it has members of the LGBTQ community and therefore the male role is also “unconventional”. It is flawed in the fact that the plot is centered around LGBTQ stereotypes. Often throughout the movie they stereotype different LGBTQ characters that have not come out to the rest of the school and try outing them. This movie is all about stereotypes. On many occurrences there is racial prejudice and joking remarks along the common LGBTQ stereotypes that are thrown in and become the movies “norm”. Male violence is often demonstrated throughout this movie, for example the two best guy friends fight each other physically and are cheered on by their peers and given praise for “winning”.

GBF was given bonus points in the director and writer’s category because both are part of the LGBTQ community. Both the writer and director were white males but are distinct in that they're gay. The writer George Northy said himself that this movie is loosely based on his high school experience with his best friend and their coming out. 

The movie GBF passes the Representation Test with a B because it has a high quantity of LGBTQ related components. I chose the movie thinking that it would score higher. But the only races featured in the film are African American and White which are stereotyped frequently; there isn't much variance in the schools population other than that. The movie lacks in female strength and intelligence as well as female writing or direction. 

22 Jump Street Representation Test

22 Jump Street Rep Test Results

For those of you that have seen 21 Jump Street you

know that it is a strong comedy with some offensive

aspects. 22 Jump Street follows suit and uses the

f-word over140 times. Not surprisingly, 22 Jump

Street scored a low "C" on the representation test.

I gave it a score of four points based on my

personal opinion.

There was a large amount of men in this movie. There were only two women in the film that had speaking roles and they never talked to each other. However, one of these women were of color and they both had diverse bodies. Also, one of the women in the film was not an object of mail gain for she was in charge of this "drug cartel". This movie is about undercover police work and it is disappointing to see that there was not a single woman working in the station. It was all men. Including the two protagonists, their boss and their chief.

The movie poster also does display the two main characters completely surrounded by women in bikinis. It is displaying a "spring break" idea where all the girls are wearing very little clothing. There is only a brief moment during one of the spring break scenes where Channing Tatum's character grabs a random woman and kisses her after he has won a fight. 

This movie is about undercover police officers so a majority of the movie was in fact glorifying violent men. It also glorified the use of guns and that the men with guns had the upper advantage. The movie's use of guns was very casual because they were cops. However the movie did use men of two very different body types. So it scored a point in the area of "avoid perpetuating a body ideal for men". For one cop was physically strong and the other was mentally strong.

The film completely failed when it came to the male role of color and offending races and cultures. "Ice cube" plays their boss in the movie and he is the cookie cutout version of the black intense chief who says the f-word with every conjunction. They also perpetuate the opposite of racism where in one scene Jonah Hill's character is very happy that they are finally working with a black person and he would not care if they were trying to help a white "cracker".

When it came to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender characters there were none and they did not score any points in this area. However, there is a scene where Channing Tatum's character defends and counteracts the derogatory use of "faggot" in the culture. This counteracts the first 21 Jump Street where this same character was beating kids up for being "gay".


This movie is an R rated comedy. I am not surprised that it did not pass the Representation test with flying colors. I don't think this is exactly the best way to test movies because it all depends on the genre, the rating, the content and the theme. This is a comedy and most comedic styles are found out of making fun of others. This movie made millions and was considered a success even if it offended others. However, it was a good test when it came to women. 22 Jump Street scored 3/6 on the classification of women which was better than I expected and the movie didn't really degrade women too much other than the lack of them. The only thing I would change is the amount of questions about the protagonist. There can only be one or two protagonist and whoever that is defines the movie. So a movie should not lose points in other areas simply because they chose a different route of main characters.

Crazy Stupid Love

            With a title and a cast like this, it is easy for an audience member to assume that this film failed or did poorly on the Bechdel or any other form of grading system for films. The cast members, or at least the cast featured on the poster, are Caucasian, and are each with a member of the opposite sex. These assumptions are unfortunately correct. Crazy Stupid Love has failed the Bechdel test and done poorly on others, along with movies like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, Avatar, Star Wars, and many others.

            This movie, as can be assumed by the title, is completely focused on the issues and situations that arise while being in love. There are several separate couples, and a few characters in love with other characters that are already in relationships or have a significant age gap between them. Each interaction between characters has to do with “the chase” of men or women. There are several protagonists throughout this film. The root of the plot begins with Emily Weaver (Julianne Moore) asking her husband Cal (Steve Carell) for a divorce. Their children are at home with a baby sitter, Jessica (Analeigh Tipton). Their 13-year-old son, Robbie (Jonah Bobo) is in love with the Jessica, while Jessica is in love with Cal, her employer. Meanwhile, Hannah (Emma Stone) tries her hardest to avoid a stealthy pick-up artist at a bar, to no avail. Cal later learns from this pick-up artist – Jacob Palmer (Ryan Gosling) - to become a ladies man, and potentially win his wife back.         The entire plot is the crossing of feelings between all of the characters, and how their relationships develop as the film moves on. This could be an argument as to why the film fails the Bechdel test… there seems to be no reason that any woman would talk about anything besides obtaining a man – it would go against the plot. The Representation Test gave the film an okay score when it comes to the portrayal of women – There are women portraying the protagonist, women over 45, and there is a woman of color who doesn’t fulfill racial stereotypes. Hannah’s best friend, Liz, is portrayed by an Asian woman (Liza Lapira), and her character isn’t in the least bit stereotypical. However, the two never speak about anything other than men, causing the failure of the Bechdel test.

            In my opinion, the filmmakers are correct in saying that women frequently talk about men. These things are a fact of life – people want to talk about how to attract the person of their desires no matter their sexual orientation. It is also true that women talk about topics other than men; these conversations simply aren’t portrayed in the film, because for one reason or another, they were deemed irrelevant. In the male department, the film scored two points for the non-stereotypical and non-violent roles. Carell’s character, Cal, is a loving husband and father. He seems to be a major caregiver to his children, while his wife works primarily. Although his character fluctuates as the plot thickens, he remains the steady caregiver to his family as the movie ends.

            Although I completely agree that films need to be more open to race and sexual preference, the test seemed to have an unfair advantage, because the subject did not match the required content. The movie scored 6 out of 27 possible points, earning a C grade. I think it’s a great thing that people are starting to notice what is lacking in representation in the film industry. However, the testing methods seem to be on the unattainable side. The Representation Test offers a possible perfect score of 27 points, but it is possible highly confusing and intricate if you were to put all of these elements into a movie – it isn’t natural unless it were a movie like Valentines Day or the musical Rent, because these productions follow multiple, separate people and interactions. This plot happened to be about the pursuit and maintaining of love and relationships, and I don’t think it should be penalized for that purpose.

The Great Gatsby: Blog 2

         The Great Gatsby is a film centered around the life of James Gatz, known throughout the movie as “Gatsby.” After a thorough analysis into the movie I had to give it a bleak two on the rep test. With a strong masculine lead role this film fails to earn its six points for having a women (and of color or over 45) lead role; in fact there are no named colored women whatsoever, making the Great Gatsby lose out on another potential area to earn points. As endearing as Daisy was throughout the movie and as much of a statement it made that she would dare cheat on her adulterous husband in the twenties she still is not the embodiment of female power that the movie would have you feel she was. When it comes down to it she was hardly more that a sexual object pulled back and forth between her two lovers, not showing depth whatsoever into the inner workings of her mind. Making her the epitome of a women only on screen for the male gaze. Hardly any conversation between the women holds any depth and they definitely don’t stray from talking about their male counterparts. This film glorifies male violence through fighting scenes and death though fortunately showing men with realistic body expectations, although that could be contributed to the fact that the men felt as if they didn’t need to impress the women with anything except their money and lack of regard for their well being. Although the basis for not showing all ideal body images on men may not be a good one, this earned the film two points. The film doesn’t contain any prominent black roles or show a man in a non-stereotypical role. If anything this movie embodies the male stereotypes; showing all main male characters as short tempered, misogynistic, and overall perfect embodiments of negative male stereotypes. This film shows every cultural stereotype from the roaring twenties imaginable and doesn’t include any lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender people making weather they are stereotyped a moot point. The only disability of the protagonist is an unhealthy obsession with a married woman he calls “love” and a possible alcohol and drug problem.

Although when looking at the rep test analysis you would think this film should be taken out of production in reality it is one of my favorites. Looking at only the score sheet provided there are hardly any upsides to this movie but when viewed it is simply jaw dropping. From the actors to the settings the viewer is infatuated from the very beginning. You fall in love with ditzy Daisy just simply by seeing the effect she has on Gatsby and your heart strings are tugged when you see the end of our dysfunctional protagonist. Movies should be judged much more off of viewer feelings than a checklist of pros and cons because movies are art and when art is oversimplified the magic behind it all is lost. All check boxes aside the majority would agree this is an amazing film.

The Notebook Representation Test - Blog 2

The movie The Notebook scored six out of a possible twenty-seven points, thus portraying the letter grade, C.  As believed beforehand, the movie received relatively few points, proving the little diversity of the film.  The Notebook is based around the typical storyline of a drama or romance type film with a few differences.  The story is solely told from the main character, Noah’s, perspective with a twist of alternating between the past memory of the love story and the present day memory. 

            Romance and drama movies are challenging genres to incorporate a diverse group of characters although it can be done.  The Notebook heavily focuses on the two main characters, Noah and Allie, while other characters are one-dimensional and quickly removed from the story.  Because of this, the movie scores poorly on diversity with three of the points from a single category, Men.  The notebook heavily focuses on Noah and his thoughts as he chases after Allie from the beginning to the end.  Atypical of this genre, the man is heavily chasing the woman without trying to bring her down from her higher status.  Allie explains to Noah she has to leave for school after summer and he became frustrated because he would not be attending college and Allie suggested he go with her to New York or she could stay in North Carolina with him and not attend college.  He refused to let her walk away from her dreams of college and swore he would never forget her.  No violence is ever seen or hinted at during the movie as well as the absence of perpetuating extreme and unhealthy body ideals for men.  Noah throughout the movie took on the role of a caring and loving guy, not particularly interested in fulfilling the extraordinarily dominant physique of many male roles, especially in the romantic drama genre.  Three of the six points coming from the men category surprised me in different ways.  One being, normally movies with more points under the men category portray the male characters as fulfilling the violent, masculine nature of the typical, male role.  Also, I would not think a Romantic drama would have points under the men category either because of the typical story line most dramas follow with the females chasing a male and something happening where the movie focuses on her life and accomplishments as a female. 

            In contrast, two points arrived under the women category but only for one item.  Even then, Allie is less of a protagonist compared to Noah.  Although Allie is the running force behind the story and a large contributor to the actual plot line, her role does not share equally with the role of Noah, a big difference compared to many romantic dramas.  Also, the movie did not pass the Bechdel Test.  Although Allie and her mom converse, each time they only talk about her future with a boy as well as her mom’s past boyfriend.

            The final point fell under the race, ethnicity, and culture heading but could easily be persuaded from adding to the final tally.  The setting of the film resides in the 1940s and therefore a good number of people in the film are of color, but are portrayed as a servant or housekeeping role for the most part.  No racial prejudices or slurs are made at any time during the film. Aside from the servant or housekeeping roles, occasional African American couples would be shown in the time frame of different scenes in the movie.  One particularly stood out to me at the funeral of Noah’s father when the camera focused on the African American couple consoling Noah. 

            LGBT people and people with disabilities were not represented during this film.  The film circled around the illness of Allie Calhoun, Alzheimer’s disease, but this does not portray the typical disabilities that are put in films as a token.  With many films as well, the director and writers are both white males.  Although this is true, a film's diversity should not rely on the gender of the writer or director.  Typically, the gender of these occupations is a political gesture construed by the entire film industry and should not contribute to the grading of a single movie in my opinion. 

            The film set in the 1940s contributes to the lack of diversity just as much as the actual story line.  Integration and LGBT people did not occur heavily during this time at all and would make the story line invalid if portrayed as so.  The Representation Test does not fairly account for the settings of stories and could fail a movie based on this.  I believe there should not be a pass-fail system for diversity in movies because of the sole fact that many story-lines cannot add diversity truthfully and accurately to a movie.  If the test was more detailed and had other criteria to meet then maybe the test could be applied to more of an array of genres.  The current state of the test cannot adequately grade any film in my opinion because of the vagueness and the lack of balance between the categories from the get go. 

Blog 2: The Representation Test

The movie How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days scores a C, with a total of six points, on The Representation Test. I was surprised that this movie scored as high as it did because it is a chick flick with the typical male-female romance; however, I also expected some aspects of the movie to get it some points to help increase the score due to the fact that the protagonist was a woman fighting for her career. The points earned all came from two out of six categories, which shows that this method may not be a fair way to score movies to determine if it holds the qualities of being diverse.

Most of the points came from the Women category with four of the six points. This makes sense because the movie is predominantly woman with few male interactions other than the one love interest. Though a large portion of the movie has the focus of Kate Hudson, the protagonist woman, as an “object for the male gaze” it represents more equality since she is doing the same to the male role, Matthew McConaughey. Also, they both are treating each other in such sexual ways for work purposes to move up in their job ranking. This movie is contradicting in many ways when it comes to the representation test because it is based on a man and woman relationship focusing on the other as sexual objects. However, the woman character is passionate about her career and this is the driving force behind her actions. Kate’s character, Andie, is told by her boss that if she does well on her column “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” she can write about anything she wants, which essentially is politics. Andie has a “Masters from Columbia” and is not interested in continuing down the path of a fashion writer. There is a scene in which Andie and her boss are having a conversation about Andie’s plans to start writing about things that are important to her. This shows Andie in an assertive way as a woman as well as her boss, also a woman, in a powerful manner; this gives the movie credit for passing the Bechdel Test. Though the relationships between the women in this movie are important and serve to represent a large portion of the movie, there is more focus on the man protagonist.

Though there isn’t focus on glorifying violent men or portraying extreme and unhealthy body image, there is sexual focus from the woman point of view towards the man and the same from the man to the woman. In a way, since both the man and the woman are giving off the same judgment it displays more equality than if it was just from the man. With the movie being a chick flick, the male role does serve as a stereotypical man that has the narrow-minded focus of work and women. This doesn’t help its score on the representation test because the man doesn’t fall into a category that is non-stereotypical. There are also no points gained in any other category; every other character in the movie is a friend or family of the two main characters and they don’t represent anything unordinary.

The fact that this movie scored as high as it did with the characteristics it has including chick flick, a white male-female romance, and woman viewed as sexual objects shows that the representation test may not be fair to judge if a movie displays diversity. There were many qualities that were quite the opposite of diverse in this movie and it still managed to get half of the points. The questions asked in the representation test need to be more in depth and more specific to get better results from movies.