Since the children just spent all afternoon watching old Looney Tunes, I think I'm in a position to say that Bugs Bunny - and the other Looney Tunes - do not pass the Bechdel-Wallace test, in toto. At least none of the 50 or so episodes on that 4 disk set has a single scene in even one episode in which two female characters talk to each other about anything at all, let alone about something other than a man.
Perhaps someone else can correct me on this. I didn't see any. Of course there is some question about the gender of a collection of cartoon animals. When my daughter was small she believed without questioning it that all of the characters who were not specifically gendered as male or female - that is, most of them, in animated cartoon animals - were female. She believed Bugs Bunny was female. It broke my heart to think how soon she was going to discover that unless a character is specifically gendered female, it is male.
So every character that does anything fun or intelligent? Male.
And then you consider the roles of the few female characters in Bugs Bunny, with the sole exception of Granny; lipstick-wearing sexual distractions. That's what my poor wee girl one day had to realise was the only available role for her. And it's what my poor wee boy was trained to believe was all girls were good for, too.
Kinda robs me of some of the innocent pleasure of Bugs Bunny cartoons. However, they are still pretty funny.
This would be a great group blog. A list of books, movies, TV series and whether they pass or fail. I'd be happy to take part if you feel like taking another go at it.
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