Lowering the Bar = Not Okay

Yeah, okay, I get it, people like Pacific Rim and are entirely incapable of acknowledging anything possibly problematic about it.

And every movie I've seen this summer fails, soundly, the Bechdel Test. Which, in case you don't know, asks if there are a)  two female characters who b) talk to each other c) about something other than a man. As this is something I do EVERY DAMN DAY, it is a wonder to me that we seem to never see it on film.

But here's a thing.  Making up a new test so that you can call Mako Mori a feminist is just....eurgh. 

Here's what I'm talking about.  In case you're too lazy to click, as I often am, here's WORD FOR WORD from the Tumblr post: "The Mako Mori test is passed if the movie has: a) at least one female character; b) who gets her own narrative arc; c) that is not about supporting a man’s story."

Wow, it's like NCLB has come to mass media.  Test too hard? MAKE AN EASIER TEST. Halve the number of females required, and make her something other than stage dressing.  

The irony is, of course, that Mako Mori fails the Mako Mori test.  

Because I'm too lazy to scroll down, let me recap Mako Mori's 'narrative arc'. 

She has no agency other than what men (Pentecost, Becket) allow her. She doesn't put herself on the candidate list because Stacker wouldn't like it. She fights in the trials anyway, when Becket calls her out, but only when Stacker agrees. Even then, she doesn't suit up until...Stacker gives her permission. Even in the climax of the film, she meekly does what Raleigh wants, leaving him alone to face the danger of arming the reactor, not even putting up a word of protest. 

She's the Damsel in Distress for both Stacker (when she's a child) and Raleigh (in the drift when she needs to be rescued from her own memory of...being rescued by a man...it's like damselception). Her 'honor' 'needs' to be defended (sorry about all the airquotes) fistfight style between Raleigh and Chuck Hansen. And she even delivers the Damsel Kiss reward to Raleigh.  

So, looking at the Mako Mori test, her narrative arc is...what? I could maybe, in a very generous mood, see her move from scared little girl to fighter...if she had any real fight in her. Compared to Sasha Kaidanovsky, though, she's a silent partner to Raleigh's control of Gipsy Danger. If she'd resisted being sent away at the end, I'd buy it a lot more. But let's just say, cranky old feminist is cranky and old and let's give her an arc. 

Which brings us to the third requirement: that her story isn't about propping up a man's story. 

This is a solid, resounding, sonic-boom of a fail. She exists to give Stacker an angsty/tender side, she exists as the Love Interest for Raleigh. She exists to show us how dangerous drifting can be, and how Nice a Guy Raleigh is. Everything she does in the movie is to prop up the emotional depth of a male character. EVERYTHING. 

I'll take a step back to look at Pacific Rim Tales from Year Zero for a moment, because we have several female characters....who also fail the Mako Mori test.  

Caitlin Lightcap, the scientist who invents PONS (drifting) has a clear, identifiable, hands-down narrative arc, going from shy science hottie to confident fighter. But...her story is only told to give Schoenfield depth--he's telling her story to the reporter to highlight his own epiphany.  Tamsin Sevier and Luna exist to give depth to Stacker. And Naomi?  Oh god. Naomi. The perky, driven Lois Lane style reporter who gathers these stories.  She has minimal narrative arc, but serves the (pointless) function of creating drama in the Becket Brothers by being, well, a bit promiscuous. She comes off as a bit of a groupie, just wanting to fuck a jaeger pilot, contrasted with Raleigh's (pure?) interest.  

W-wow. Okay, so even when we lower the bar, we can't pass it. 

Sidenote: I've become a little obsessed recently with Elysium and so just to be fair, let's poke at that as we wrap up: Elysium: fails the Bechdel test. HOWEVER, believe it or not, Delacourt passes. She has a narrative arc, that doesn't exist to give emotional oomph to a man's story. Yes, she activates Kruger. Yes, she sends him after Max. But it's not personal.  A man would have complicated Max's life the same way.  Frey fails, but even then, she has agency.  The problem is, of course, Delacourt is a stone cold bitch and not a pretty,  Asian moe stereotype (yeah, guess who's NEVER going to forgive Del Toro his idea that she can stand in rotorwash and not have that umbrella torn out of her hands.) 
What's really funny (or depressing, depending on how you look at it) is that passing these tests didn't USED to be a problem.  Star Trek: The Next Generation NAILED both the Bechdel test and this Mako Mori test.  Even characters like Seven of Nine (who is the first time I heard the word 'fanservice') had agency, they had their own stories to tell, and their stories WEREN'T subsumed to showing the emotional growth of a 'more important' male character. 

My question is...what happened?  And why are we lowering the bar instead of insisting we go back to what we used to do so well?