The origin of the Bechdel test is a 1985 comic strip by Alison Bechdel called "Dykes To Watch Out For." In a strip titled "The Rule", two women discuss seeing a film. One woman explains her personal rule or "test" for choosing a movie. The movie must:
- Have at least two women in it,
- The women need to talk to each other,
- They need to talk about something besides a man.
The test, also referred to as the "Bechdel-Wallace test" after a friend of Bechdel to whom she credits the idea, was originally meant as a critique of media but is now utilized in examining gender bias in number of arenas. Variations of the Bechdel test have emerged that include such things as the length of dialogue between women and whether the women have names.
While admitedly not a perfect or conclusive gender analysis, the Bechdel Test can be a helpful lens to critique both text and lived experiences. How many women sit on prominent panels at conferences? How many of them are in conversation with each other? How often do we quote women when we study our ancient torah? Do the books our children read include girls and women whose speech and actions are not revolving around men?
With growing awareness from #metoo, it's time to employ the concepts of the Bechdel test -- paying attention to speech and silence, to the presence of or lack of presence of women in our narrative, to the relationships between women and where men fit into the equation in the Torah and explore its implications.
--Rabbi Lauren Grabelle Herrmann
Possibly put Ruth here?
Observation 1: Women are Present, but often are Unnamed (Even the really important ones!)
Observation 2: When two or more women are involved in a narrative, they don't relate or speak to each other.
(14) Then Rachel and Leah answered him [Jacob], saying, “Have we still a share in the inheritance of our father’s house? (15) Surely, he regards us as outsiders, now that he has sold us and has used up our purchase price. (16) Truly, all the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children. Now then, do just as God has told you.”
The Exception to the Rule, in the Book of Ruth, is still a bit complicated!
Observation Number 3: The Torah's Strong Female Characters seem more likely to be "Singular" or "Single"
Observation 3.5: The Strong Characters are Single or Not (Presumably) Jewish!
Bat Paroah/Daughter of Pharaoh: Defies the most frightening and powerful man in the land, her father, by rescuing Moses.
The Midwives: They risk their lives to do what is right and to save the Israelite babies and in the process become the first model for civil disobedience.
Tzipporah: Takes a flint and circumcises her son!
Using #metoo & the Bechdel Test as a teaching tool:
"Judaism holds rich, complicated, textured narratives at its core. What would it look like to view this hashtag as a beacon, an invitation to reignite and re-energize the ways Jewish educational institutions teach about relationships, power, status, partnership and consent? We don't run from the stories, we run towards them; we amplify the pedagogy of narrative that has always been central to Jewish teaching and dig deep into the foundational values of respect and care 'for the other.'
--Dr. Shira Esptein, "Viewing the #MeToo Hashtag As a Teaching Tool," The New York Jewish Week, November 21, 2017
Taking guidance from voices in our rabbinic tradition that give voice to the the voiceless.
פרקי דרבי אליעזר (היגר) - "חורב" פרק מז
וכשבאו משה ואהרן אצל זקני ישראל ועשו האותות לעיניהם הלכו אצל סרח בת אשר אמרו לה בא אדם אחד אצלנו ועשה אותות לעינינו כך וכך, אמרה להם אין באותו ממש, אמרו לה והרי אמ' פקוד יפקוד אלקים אתכם, אמרה להם הוא האיש העתיד לגאול את ישראל ממצרים, שכן שמעתי מאבא פ"א פ"א פקוד יפקוד, מיד האמינו העם באלהיהם ובשלוחו,
שנ' ויאמן העם וישמעו כי פקד יי את עמו (שמות ד,ל"א)
Pirkei D'Rabbi Eliezer (Higer) - "Horev" Ch. 47
And when Moshe and Aharon came to the Elders of Israel and made the signs before their eyes, they went to Serach bat Asher and said to her: "A man has come before us with these signs."
She said: "There is nothing to that man."
They said: "He said: G-d will remember you."
She said: "He is the the man who will bring Yisrael out of Egypt, for I heard from my father 'Peh Peh Pakod Yifkod' [are the magic words]."
They immediately believed in their G-d and God's emissary as it says: "The nation believed and listened because God remembered God's people." (Shmot 4:31)
"The Coming of Lilith" by Judith Plaskow (1972)
In the beginning, the Lord God formed Adam and Lilith from the dust of the ground and breathed into their nostrils the breath of life. Created from the same source, both having been formed from the ground, they were equal in all ways. Adam, being a man, didn’t like this situation, and he looked for ways to change it. He said, “I'll have my figs now, Lilith,” ordering her to wait on him, and he tried to leave to her the daily tasks of life in the garden. But Lilith wasn't one to take any nonsense; she picked herself up, uttered God's holy name, and flew away. “Well now, Lord,” complained Adam, “that uppity woman you sent me has gone and deserted me.” The Lord, inclined to be sympathetic, sent his messengers after Lilith, telling her to shape up and return to Adam or face dire punishment. She, however, preferring anything to living with Adam, decided to stay where she was. And so God, after more careful consideration this time, caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam and out of one of his ribs created for him a second companion, Eve.
For a time, Eve and Adam had a good thing going. Adam was happy now, and Eve, though she occasionally sensed capacities within herself that remained undeveloped, was basically satisfied with the role of Adam's wife and helper. The only thing that really disturbed her was the excluding closeness of the relationship between Adam and God. Adam and God just seemed to have more in common, both being men, and Adam came to identify with God more and more. After a while, that made God a bit uncomfortable too, and he started going over in his mind whether he may not have made a mistake letting Adam talk him into banishing Lilith and creating Eve, seeing the power that gave Adam.
Meanwhile Lilith, all alone, attempted from time to time to rejoin the human community in the garden. After her first fruitless attempt to breach its walls, Adam worked hard to build them stronger, even getting Eve to help him. He told her fearsome stories of the demon Lilith who threatens women in childbirth and steals children from their cradles in the middle of the night. The second time Lilith came, she stormed the garden's main gate, and a great battle ensued between her and Adam in which she was finally defeated. This time, however, before Lilith got away, Eve got a glimpse of her and saw she was a woman like herself.
After this encounter, seeds of curiosity and doubt began to grow in Eve's mind. Was Lilith indeed just another woman? Adam had said she was a demon. Another woman! The very idea attracted Eve. She had never seen another creature like herself before. And how beautiful and strong Lilith looked! How bravely she had fought! Slowly, slowly, Eve began to think about the limits of her own life within the garden.
One day, after many months of strange and disturbing thoughts, Eve, wandering around the edge of the garden, noticed a young apple tree she and Adam had planted, and saw that one of its branches stretched over the garden wall. Spontaneously, she tried to climb it, and struggling to the top, swung herself over the wall.
She did not wander long on the other side before she met the one she had come to find, for Lilith was waiting. At first sight of her, Eve remembered the tales of Adam and was frightened, but Lilith understood and greeted her kindly. “Who are you?” they asked each other, “What is your story?” And they sat and spoke together of the past and then of the future. They talked for many hours, not once, but many times. They taught each other many things, and told each other stories, and laughed together, and cried, over and over, till the bond of sisterhood grew between them.
Meanwhile, back in the garden, Adam was puzzled by Eve's comings and goings, and disturbed by what he sensed to be her new attitude toward him. He talked to God about it, and God, having his own problems with Adam and a somewhat broader perspective, was able to help out a little—but he was confused, too. Something had failed to go according to plan. As in the days of Abraham, he needed counsel from his children. “I am who I am,” thought God, “but I must become who I will become.”
And God and Adam were expectant and afraid the day Eve and Lilith returned to the garden, bursting with possibilities, ready to rebuild it together.