Trinity, Bechdel, and the SFC

Strong Female Characters… Where do I even begin? First off, there is a disproportionately low amount of Strong Female Characters to Male Characters in the action/sci-fi/fantasy genre and there are a lot of fake ones. Then there are also films with Strong Female Characters that the movie makes out to be an oddity, like they are the only women capable of such feats of bravery and intelligence. And so I present to you, Trinity Syndrome and The Bechdel Test, two things filmmakers should study and then apply.

Part 1: Trinity Syndrome.

Trinity Syndrome is a term coined by Tasha Robinson in her article “We’re Losing all our Strong Female Characters to Trinity Syndrome”. Trinity Syndrome is the habit filmmakers have that takes a female character who could be awesome, and turns her into a Damsel In Distress, or a stepping stone to greatness, or a reward for the male character. While this article is very important and points out a lot about the writing of female characters today, I’m also not 100% on board with her examples, for instance, Tauriel in Desolation of Smaug. Tauriel is a certified badass not only for her skills and cunning, but also for her independence. She gets thrown out of her community and really seems unaffected by it because she knows they threw her out for stupid reasons (having feelings for Kili and wanting to protect and help him and the others). The article dismisses her with Trinity Syndrome in the form of a love triangle described as “Twilight-esque” by Robinson. I do not agree. While both Kili and Legolas have feelings for her, she in no way reciprocates feelings for Legolas and does not end up with Kili. Even if she did form a romantic relationship with Kili I don’t think it would have been to elevate his hero status and as the relationship stands it did not affect her ability to operate as an important part in the film.

I also don’t believe that Trinity was subject to the syndrome that bares her name. While she is a strong character at the beginning and Neo surpasses her as he rises to embody his One-ness she is not made worthless.   More often than not when a Strong Female Character is invented she ends up being strong, cunning, and then an emotional train wreck (like Valka in How to Train your Dragon 2) or an emotionless robot (I hate to say it, like Sarah Connor in Terminator 2). Without her and her ability to step around her fear of loving Neo, he would have died after getting shot by Agent Smith and that would have been the end of the movie. There is more to a strong female character than intelligence and being able to hold one’s own (though in female characters these are very important traits). They are allowed to be involved in a romantic plot as long as it doesn’t degrade their character.

Of course, I am fully relying on the first movie to prove Trinity’s worth here. I ignore the second movie and have never seen the third. I wave the white flag of surrender if anyone wants to discuss those films. My disagreement about Tauriel and Trinity does not mean I don’t agree with Robinson. I do, whole-heartedly, just look at Jane in the Thor movies (the second one especially… Darcy is a more SFC material than Jane is not to mention Sif) or Neytiri in Avatar who literally inherits leadership of her people and yet the writers still feel that the male lead can do a better job, or even Leeloo in Fifth Element. She is pretty much a living weapon with the ability to learn exorbitant amounts of information in minutes and yet she gets injured and gives up right at the end of the film when she is needed most.

Part 2: The Bechdel Test.

The Bechdel Test has to be one of the easiest tests to pass. In order to pass the test the movie has to have two named female characters talk to each other about something other than a man. The test can be passed with literally two lines of dialog… yet the amount of action type films that do not pass this test is staggering. And the ones that do pass sometimes only pass by a hair. To round back on The Matrix example, the only time two named female characters (Trinity and Switch) have a conversation, it was two lines long and about pulling a tracer out of Neo’s stomach. While Trinity is trying to remove it, Switch is watching as says, “you’re going to lose it,” to which Trinity replies “no, I’m not.” A whopping seven words and while they may be talking directly about the genderless tracer, it is a tracer that is implanted in the very male Neo. The debate about this conversation is ongoing and can be seen here on the Bechdel Test site.

That said, I don’t want to give up on the film industry entirely. There are films that pass these tests… some of them (barely) pass both! Unfortunately, not may of them are in the action/sci-fi/fantasy genre, but I have complied a list of movies that pass either one or both in case you want to take in some female awesomeness.

1. Twister: Dr. Jo Harding, played by Helen Hunt, is a rough and tumble tornado expert with an adventurous, bordering adrenaline junkie streak and a back-story laced with pain. She is strong, resilient, and smart, but not without her flaws especially in her relationship with her soon to be ex-husband and used-to-be partner in crime Bill Harding. When they join forces yet again for one more tornado season they balance each other well, each bringing needed talent to the team not only to conquer nature, but also their rival tornado chaser Dr. Jonas Miller.

• Bechdel Test: Pass (Aunt Meg talks to both Jo and Melissa… barely, but it happens.)
• Trinity Syndrome: Jo is an important character throughout and does not get put out of commission to further Bill’s story line nor does he outperform her in any significant fashion.

2. Salt: I was not expecting so much controversy about this one. The movie follows Evelyn Salt, played by Angelina Jolie, a Russian K-12 spy who is planted in the CIA. After she is exposed by the leader of the K-12 program and her husband is kidnapped she starts a mission to take down the K-12 program in the United States, and the leader of the program it’s self. She does this entirely on her own using nothing but her own strength and intelligence.

Here’s why people have a problem with it. Apparently it’s nonsensical in plot and was written entirely to have someone run around and do badass stuff. And that was literally the point of the movie. It’s a movie, people, not a Nobel Peace Prize Nomination. It’s groundbreaking in that it was initially written for Tom Cruise and then someone decided instead to pop Angie in there. I think it was genius. It shows that women can support a breakneck action paced movie just as well as a man. Salt was a sounding board, and an important one. No, it’s not the perfect Strong Female Character Lead Role Action Spy Movie and that’s because it’s on the forefront. People also didn’t like it because it apparently didn’t answer the question of “Who is Evelyn Salt?” (I mean I’m pretty dead set that she’s a Russian defector, but apparently that’s not as dead set as I am…) But that’s why the Good Lord invented sequels.

• Bechdel Test: Squiffy, at one point Salt talks to her young neighbor about taking care of her dog, but apparently that neighbor never receives a name. So… mostly, failed.
• Trinity Syndrome: There is no male character for her to be one-upped by or turned into a trophy for… they’re either dead or… dead. This film passes the Trinity Syndrome test with flying colors.

3. Interstellar: Murphy is the daughter of Cooper, a man chosen to pilot a mission to investigate a black hole in the far reaches of space with the slight chance that it might save the inhabitants of a dying Earth. We first see Murphy as a young girl and even then she is standing up for the history she knows is right when her school tries to teach her that the lunar landing was a myth. Murphy is also one of the SFCs that doesn’t have to go around blowing things up to prove her worth. She is sharp. She is the one who figured out that the messages being sent through her bookshelf and later her father’s watch were not random, but very specific information that she then uses to save the human race through very complex science and math. She even had to stand up to her mentor, Dr. Brand, after he reveals to her that the problem they have been working on for years is unsolvable and won’t work. She didn’t take no as an answer, which is important to see in female characters.

One could argue that Murphy is only there to propel her father into infamy, but I think that’s a load of crap. Teamwork makes the dream work, and I love the teamwork shown in this movie because it’s wrought with emotional turmoil and communication problems (both spatial and emotional) but still works in the end.

• Bechdel Test: Failed, unfortunately, even though there are two important female characters they never talk on screen and there is one conversation between Murphy and her sister-in-law, but it is primarily about her nephew.
• Trinity Syndrome: Murphy is not anyone’s trophy by any means, she is central to the plot and does not get taken out to promote the male role.

So, this post got a little out of hand, and I could literally go on for hours about movies that have Strong Female Characters (Katniss in The Hunger Games, Eowyn in Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Black Widow in Avengers, Ripley in Alien, and Haley Graham in Stick it, which is not and action/sci-fi/fantasy movie, but she is one of my most favorite female leads ever and it leaves the Bechdel Test in the dust.) but that does not mean that Hollywood can’t do a better job because there are a lot of movies out there that make me cringe as well.  Want to chime in? Leave it in the comments.