For Erica Shiner, 2015 marked the year she first launched herself into the world of feminist activism.

That May, she started a petition to stop American rapper Action Bronson from performing at Toronto’s Yonge-Dundas Square for annual music festival North by Northeast, saying his lyrics “[glorify] gang-raping and murdering women.” After gaining more than 40,000 signatures, Bronson was pulled from the festival. “That kind of launched me into feminist activism, even though I’d always been, from a young age, doing silly art projects with Barbies in chains and had a pretty feminist mom,” says Shiner. “I was always engaged, but not as directly as I became after doing the petition.”

Later that year, she also joined Roncesvalles-based Revue Cinema’s board of directors. “It’s a community-run not-for-profit, so there’s always a lot of opportunity for doing fundraising stuff there,” she says. A year later, Bechdel Tested was born. The bimonthly series hosted at the Revue aims to screen women-centred, Bechdel-approved films about different industries, each preceded by a Q&A with industry experts. “I wanted to use cinema to bring people together,” she says. “It was really important to me to do something that supported women in their careers, because … we’re the first few generations of women who were even allowed to work in so many industries.” Through Bechdel Tested, Shiner wants to create a space where women can learn from each other—not only about how to enter different industries, but also how to overcome gender-based issues in those industries.

The Bechdel test was first created in 1985 by American cartoonist Alison Bechdel. In order for a film to pass the test, it has to have at least two women in it who talk to each other about a topic that doesn’t involve a man. It offers a more nuanced method of evaluating female representation—that women are not only portrayed on film, but that they are portrayed well.

The series’ latest segment, Women in Religion, screened the 1983 film Yentl, starring Barbra Streisand and featured panelists like Cheri DiNovo, MPP and queer critic-turned-minister, and Farheen Khan, an activist and author. Attendees were served pink “Holy Water” cocktails from Swan Dive, a bar owned by Shiner’s sister.

Erica Shiner.

“We have sold out a few times, and our events tend to be pretty popular. I think that that speaks to the hunger for feminist programming that’s really thriving right now in our city,” says Shiner. “It’s sending a message to everyone that women can be central characters, that directors can tell their stories from a woman’s gaze.”

This month’s event, Women in Politics, will screen Election starring Reese Witherspoon. The panel will include Toronto city councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam and Michal Hay, Jagmeet Singh’s campaign manager. Shiner is mindful of having inclusive and diverse representation at the screenings—something she admits is more difficult with the films themselves. “It’s already hard enough to find films in a particular industry where women are central,” she says.

Bechdel Tested’s next screening is set for February 18. Shiner says future plans for the series are not yet public, aside from wanting to expand into areas outside of film.

“I really believe that the path to gender equality is in women’s solidarity … It’s just an important conversation, and that’s what’s valuable about it.”

CORRECTION (02/15/2018): A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the series hosts their Q&As after screenings of their films. This regrets the error.

 Claire Dearing

Right away the audience is told that Claire is a bad, bad girl for having a career and no kids. But it isn’t that she doesn’t want kids, she just hasn’t met the right man … yet! I think she was supposed to appear progressive: she has a career, controls the park, has a no-nonsense attitude and doesn’t take the male hero’s arm for help. And yet, early on in the movie, she is vilified for having a career. She is bossed around by men who appear to actually control the park, and her no-nonsense attitude is meant to read as bitchy and stupidly cocky. As for not taking Owen’s arm when running, great. Maybe she should have ditched the heels though. No one can do all the stuff she did in heels without getting seriously injured, but this is an example of her cockiness getting in the way of good decisions. Who wears all white and heels in a jungle? We know Claire toughens up throughout the movie because her iron straight hair do turns into tousled waves, and she ties her shirt up in a way reminiscent of Jurassic Park’s Dr. Ellie Sattler. In the end, Claire has a man to make a baby with and they walk off together. The predictability of this is as gross and boring as the fact that all the dinosaur parts are over at this point.

 Owen Grady

Owen is the movie’s alpha male hero. He is big, strong, handsome, and savvy. He is the alpha of an all-female velociraptor pack. He knows everything; he’s super great. He has heart, he has brawn, and Claire gets super blush when her nephews (who proclaim they want to stick with this man and not their aunt) call him her boyfriend. Oh gosh, he is just great and will make a wonderful father to the children Claire is finally going to have- blah blah blah.

 Simon Masrani

Simon is supposed to be that cool, fun business man we all wish existed. Except, any good boss (good by capitalism’s standards) acts this way. He’s the, “C’mon, we’re a family. Don’t disappoint your family. I’m not just any boss, I’m a cool boss,” kind of boss that actually endangers everyone for the sake of profit.

 Vic Hoskins

Vic wants to be the alpha male. He wants to turn the super cute raptors into weapons in the US army. He isn’t as handsome as Owen, so we know not to like him.

 Barry

I don’t think Barry has a last name. Some other characters don’t either, but unlike Barry they are on screen for just a few minutes. The only black character, he is there to “help” the white characters by trying to talk sense to them in regards to using the raptors, and by being Owen’s right hand. He has an animalistic demeanour, which is sadly pretty common for characters of colour. This move lacks originality, weird for a movie about bringing dinosaurs back to life.

 Lowery Cruthers

What a loveable dork. Lowery makes jokes and wears glasses. His work station is surrounded by toy dinosaurs and his manliness is called to question a few times: Vic steals his fountain pop, his female co-worker won’t kiss him, and he is ordered to “be a man for once.” When he leaves his station at the end, Lowery keeps only one dinosaur, perhaps to show he has become more of a man after all this excitement.

 Vivian Krill

I think a feminist joke was attempted with Vivian’s character. When she leaves and Lowery tries to kiss her she says no, because she already has a boyfriend. She’s already owned by another dude, Lowery, go be a man!

 Zara Young

Zara is tasked with watching Claire’s visiting nephews. She isn’t good with kids and she is heard on the phone saying she doesn’t want her fiancé to have a bachelor party, so we know we don’t like her. And because she is not to be liked, she is killed in a pretty unnecessarily violent and drawn out way.

 Nick

The purpose of Nick is to remind us all that fat people are stupid and lazy. He is shown eating at his desk—something no good, thin folk ever  do—and making poor decisions. Unlike Owen, he runs from danger. And when he hides he does so in the open, crying. His tears show he can not perform his gender properly, so he must die.

 Leon

Leon is on screen long enough to fall into the raptor’s home and scurry away. As he and his skinny body get to safety, he watches big, strong Owen save the say. He is definitely not an alpha male. He is more like the Simpsons‘ squeaky voiced teen.

 Zach and Gray

Zach is tough and looks at girls all day, even though he has a girlfriend who loves him at home but he doesn’t love her back because he’s cool. Gray is the smart geeky kid. Gray cries, Zach protects. They don’t do much except put others in danger. Gray does tell Owen not to say the word “bitch.” So, that was cool. The boys link their fear of human eating giants with their parents impending divorce throughout the film. Coming from a broken home, I personally, wouldn’t be so reflective of issues outside of aforementioned giants, but hey.

 Indominus Rex                                                Rebel girl rebel girl
Rebel girl you are the queen of my world
Rebel girl rebel girl
I know I want to take you home
I want to try on your clothes oh

(If you don’t get this, check out Bikini Kill)

The movie ends with people using the dinosaurs to fight each other, much like how the rich manipulate the working class.

As for the Bechdel Test, this movie should not pass. The criteria for the test is pretty easy to pass, but movies rarely do. The three parts are:

1. At least two named women need to be in the movie.

2. They must talk to each other.

3. About something besides a man.

When Claire talks to her sister, or to her assistant, it is about her nephews. Even when the two female dinosaurs have a chat it is about the men around them.

Forever Team Dinosaur, this feminist suggests we all watch the original movie, or better yet, read the book.

All character photos are from TV Tropes.

A former This intern, Hillary Di Menna is in her second year of the gender and women’s studies program at York University. She also maintains an online feminist resource directory, FIRE- Feminist Internet Resource Exchange.

“Maybe feminism feeling like it’s in style comes as a result of increased awareness,” feminist-identifying singer Lorde writes on her Tumblr earlier this year. “Which I think is a good thing regardless of whether or not it feels ‘trendy’ (which you’re right is rl weird). I definitely don’t think feminism is going to ~go out~ or anything, I feel like we’re past that now.”

When girls are looking at Beyonce they are seeing a woman who talks about body love, being a boss and being a feminist. Her January 2014 essay, Gender Equality is A Myth!, is published in The Shriver Report. She is also criticized for romanticizing domestic violence and lightening her skin. Movies Brave and Frozen have heroines worthy of Netflix category Strong Female Lead, yet these same heroines are also part of the cringe worthy Disney Princess line, next to gals idolized for their looks and ability to marry rich. We hear of celebrity ladies like Lady Gaga called feminist (though she says otherwise, kind of), work with R Kelly and Terry Richardson—two men who are famously facing their own sex abuse allegations.

And like how grunge and punk rock lead to lower-class fashions hitting high-end runways, the fashion world—which profits from the insecurities of women—is making feminist chic: “There is this debate about women again and I want to interpret it,” Miuccia Prada said earlier this year at her Spring/Summer 2014 show. “My instrument is fashion. I had this idea that if you wear clothes so exaggerated and out there, people will look, and then they will listen.”

“On the most surface level, it must be noted that increased awareness is a good thing,” Jezebel contributor Callie Beusman writes. “Why should we care what, exactly, gets someone interested in feminist thinking, as long as they arrive there eventually?” In other words, if being a feminist is now cool, then that should be a good thing.

Much of pop culture’s adoptions of feminism can be seen as necessary baby steps—I dig that Beyonce is proud of being the boss. Still, in a world where media rules all and raising awareness only goes so far, I really want to see a plunge with sincere action. We’ll need this to make social justice in the world of gender last—as opposed to something that was once “the new black” and has since become so last season.

-Virginia Woolf

There’s a hoary old cliché about male nerds that they’re perennially afraid of women, clamming up whenever one begins to talk, scoffing through their retainer at the thought of one intellectually matching them on matters of science and technology. You know it’s nonsense, I know it’s nonsense—it has no cultural value other than to bolster tension in a particularly poor episode of The Big Bang Theory.

Yet, the Star Wars trilogy, the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Star Trek—inarguably three of the most popular franchises in the sci-fi/fantasy canon—have each failed the Bechdel Movie Test, the benchmark test for examining how well a movie represents women[1]. And it’s not just the so-called “nerd culture”; big 2013 releases like Pacific Rim, Oblivion, and This is the End have all failed the test. So who’s to blame? Is it true, that the pop culture populace is wary of accepting well-rounded women characters? Or is it the production companies, looking to green-light only movies they know will sell, being too lily-livered to take a chance on strong women? Whoever it is that’s perpetuating it, I’ll tell you who’s not putting up with this shit: Sweden.

Four Swedish cinemas last month launched a feminist ratings system for their movies, based on the Bechdel test. To receive an “A” grade, the movie must pass all three of the following:

1. It has to have at least two women in it,
2. who talk to each other,
3. about something besides a man

You’d think that’d be easy, right? Well, it’s surprising how many well-known films don’t make the cut. “The goal is to see more female stories and perspectives on cinema screens”, says Ellen Telje, the director of Bio Rio, one of the four theatres. According to a study by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, in the U.S.’s top 100 releases in 2011, only 11 percent had female protagonists.

The ratings system is unlikely to put a feather in the cap of gender equality and call it solved, but, as with most things FTW, it’s the gesture that matters. Awareness of any kind on this issue—since it is an issue that, sure, people just don’t realize when they’re being entertained—is a move toward critical thinking, which is itself a move toward change.

We’re not saying don’t keep making Star Wars films (or at least I’m not, not yet) just give us an intelligent woman. Even a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I’m sure they existed.

This falls into the “this is a good thing to know,” as opposed to the “this is definitely good news (!),” category. The Bechdel Test is a quick and dirty way to gauge the sexism of a movie, invented 25 years ago by Alison Bechdel, the cartoonist and writer of Dykes to Watch Out For. A film needs to meet three criteria to pass:

1. It must have at least two female characters;
2. They must talk to one another at some point;
3. They must talk at least once about anything other than men.

So how does Hollywood do?  You can go take a look at the statistics and graphs yourself but, the bottom line is: not well. Of the movies reviewed at bechdeltest.com only half (half!) pass. The most shocking number: 13% of the movies have only two points—meaning slightly more than a tenth of the reviewed films feature women who only talk about men.

It’s not as if the films of the 1960s are skewing the numbers or anything. This is a pattern that, if anything, is picking up momentum. Let’s go over some recent releases: The Social Network (one point), How to Train your Dragon (one point), Inception (two points—women who are dreamed up by men don’t count), The Trotsky (two points), Iron Man 2 (two points), The A-Team (zero points), etc.

Of course, a movie having three points doesn’t automatically mean it’s feminist-friendly (go check out some of the comments on the latest Twilight movie which, on a technicality, squeaked out a pass). In this case failing means a whole lot more than passing but, for your own edification at least, the Bechdel Test is…revealing.