![]() ![]() When you look at Pacific Rim, you see a world of men, with only the barest sprinkling of women. Why wasn’t it a mixed-gender selection of possible co-pilots? In that entire scene of the possible co-pilots, there is only one woman in the room - Mako Mori. Why not make that duo of scientists female? Why not make a few of those politicians who cut the funding for the Jaeger project female? Why not have a few of the technicians with speaking roles female? Instead of having the pilots of Crimson Typhoon be a set of male triplets, why not a set of female triplets? Or instead of having the Russians be husband and wife, why not have them be sisters? When the scientist ends up in the smugglers den, why weren’t some of those smugglers female? Why not have the smuggler kingpin be a woman? You know that scene where Yancy is totally kicking the ass of everyone in that long line of possible co-pilots? They’re all men. There’s your primary cast, and you don’t have to make any changes. Here’s why - you can keep the same casting for Yancy, Stacker Pentecost, Mako Mori, and even that father-son Jaeger team. Does that offer a complete pass to the fact that 94.6% of the cast was male? Fuck no. Was one of them an awesome woman of color who kicked ten types of ass? Absolutely. Why? Look at that number at the beginning of the article - 56 actors in the end credits. But it raises valid points, and ones that I don’t think we should start trying to argue away with the specific creation of a new test that the movie can pass. Does Pacific Rim failing the Bechdel test mean that I’m not going to watch it? No. *However* - I think the Bechdel test remains a valid tool. And that’s where I think things get pretty problematic.įor what it’s worth, I thought Pacific Rim was hugely fun, I’ve recommended it to a lot of people, and I freaking *loved* the strong representations of POC. Where my concern comes in is the way I felt a lot of people were talking about this on social media, which was essentially that The Mako Mori test could be a *replacement* for the Bechdel test. Now, as (as reported by The Daily Dot) has proposed the test, it seems like a useful idea to be used in conjunction with the Bechdel test. It does not make a movie automatically feminist. It is a pretty basic test for the representation of women, as is the Bechdel test. I think this is about as indicative of “feminism” (that is, minimally indicative, a pretty low bar) as the Bechdel test. The Mako Mori test is passed if the movie has: a) at least one female character b) who gets her own narrative arc c) that is not about supporting a man’s story. The Mako Mori Test was proposed by Twitter user and is this: A shocking number of films fail this test, including Pacific Rim. If it doesn’t have all three items, then it fails. Due to this, there are a lot of voices now calling for the creation of what has been dubbed “The Mako Mori Test.”Īs a bit of background for anyone who didn’t read the article: There was a lot of discussion today over social media about the article from The Daily Dot about how a lot of people have problems with the limitations of the Bechdel test based on the fact that a film like Pacific Rim, with its incredible female character Mako Mori, fails it. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |