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The NextTribe Test: Which Movies & TV Programs Show Us as We Really Are?

Welcome to the first edition of the NextTribe Test, where Valerie Frankel screens entertainment to ferret out where women over 45 are portrayed as multidimensional—and where they’re caricatures.

The famous Bechdel Test, created by graphic artist, Fun Home author, and MacArthur “Genius” Alison Bechdel, sets a low bar for female representation in entertainment with three basic criteria: (1) The work has two named women; (2) who talk to each other; (3) about something other than a man. In the last year, according to bechdeltest.com, two-thirds of new films pass, but the BBC News determined that only 49 percent of every Best Picture Oscar-nominated film in history passes the test.

A truly woke inclusivity test for women in TV and film would measure everything: race, sexual orientation, ability—but especially age. Forty-six percent of the U.S. female population is over 45. Are nearly half the women on TV middle age? Not by a long shot. At NextTribe, we would love to see more older women on screen, talking to each other, and doing anything besides baking, decorating, cheerleading kids, forgiving husbands, getting Botox, and crashing computers.

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