If we review the Evaluation history of the fiction genre, in the United States in 1934, the Hays code of Cinematographic Ethics was introduced and created by the Association of Film Producers of the United States. It was a kind of censorship of what was considered morally acceptable. It was written by a Republican leader William H. Hays and began to be applied in 1934. It showed a series of restrictions on the exposure to violence and also the classification of suitable films according to age. However regarding morals, it could be very subjective. According to Susan Faludi, the reason for the introduction of this code was motivated by the free and independent behaviour of Mae West, an icon of the cinema of that time.a.[1]
Also in Spain during the years of Franco’s regime, classificatory film censorship cards were created and displayed in the vestibule of the Catholic Churches, for people to be informed of what they should see or not in the cinema. The rating was gradual from 1 to 3, suitable for children, young people and adults; 3R for adults with objections, and 4, catalogued as seriously dangerous. Logically, these evaluation systems were very sui generis because they involved ideological manipulation by a political or religious group.
Currently a series of tests have emerged, such as the Smurfette Principle (which denounces the fact that there is a single female character in the midst of a multitude of men, as for example in the majority of the Star Wars factory). Another test is the Sexy Lamp, which is already very extreme (if women are replaced in a film by a sexy lamp, the story continues to work?). There are also many others tests that intent to show the bias in one of the trends, being race, sexual norms, androcentrism or even in relation to the gender gap outside of the story, such as Uphold‘s test that assesses the percentage of workers behind the cameras in the making of a film.
However, the best known of them all today is the Bechdel test, also called the “Bechdel/Wallace test” or “The rule“. It first appeared in 1985 in the comic strip “The Rule”, in which, one of the characters says that she only agrees to watch a movie if she meets the following requirements: a) at least two female characters come out, b) they should interact with each other, and c) that the conversation has nothing to do with a man.
Often, the media considers the film is feminist if passes the Bechdel test, relating it to the visibility of women from a gender perspective. Although the fact of not determining what the stereotype of female characters is, can generate a lot of confusion, since these characters can be rather inspiring of a patriarchal society.
On the other hand, the Test Desvinc, that concerns us here, aims to unlink from Patriarchy.
[1] Faludi, Susan, Reacción. Barcelona,Ed. Anagrama, 1993 p. 156. (Original edition: Backlash. The Undeclared War against American Women)