THE “F” STANDS FOR “FINALLY”

Bethany Hall, Staff Writer

Recently, the Internet Movie Database, or “IMDb,” made a new rating so you could find the movies you want to watch faster and easier. It’s called the F-Rating, and it stands for feminist. They made it official on the website and app on March 7, 2017. There are three different ways a movie can be tagged with this new rating.

One way a movie can be tagged is simply if the movie’s plot is meant for feminism or is feminist friendly. If your favorite movie’s sole purpose is to empower women and the plot is to highlight what women can do, then it is automatically tagged.

The second way a movie can be tagged by this rating, according to the founder and CEO of IMDb, is a test that the movie has to be put through called the Bechdel Test. This test was first established in 1985 by comics writer Alison Bechdel. In order to pass the test, a film must feature two female characters talking to each other and having a normal conversation about something other than a man. A couple of examples for this on IMDb with the “F” include “Kung Fu Panda 2,” “The Girl on the Train,” “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” and “The Parent Trap.”

The third way a movie can be tagged is if the film was directed, produced, choreographed, written, and/or have soundtracks by women. This new update, and what the creators of the rating are hoping for, is to highlight the movies and TV shows that feature women and to maybe even empower the women watching, just like normal chick flicks and rom-coms.

Just in case you are wondering, yes, a movie can be tagged if it just meets one of these criteria. However, if a movie is feminist friendly, passes the Bechdel Test, AND has women on and off the screen, it is considered “Triple F.” You can find all of these movies by going into the search bar on the IMDb website or the app and typing in “f-rated” or “triple-f-rated.”  After you do this, look under “keywords” and it will have the f-rated and the triple-f-rated taglines. Once you click on one of those, all the movies that have been tagged by this keyword will pop up and you can search for your favorite movie!