Snape Uchiha
Anbu Operative 🎭
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The Bechdel test is a test to determine if a story has good female characters. Its rules are as follows
1) There are at least two female characters
2) They talk to each other
3) About something other than men
At first glance it would seem that Naruto fails this test pretty severely. Most of the female characters, even when talking to each other, only talk about boys (particularly Sakura, Ino, Hinata, and Karin).
However, I don’t think the series should be labeled a complete failure in the area of female characters. After all, there are great female characters with a lot more to them.
The best example would be Tsunade. Tusande is arguably the best written female character in Naruto for several reasons, but that is a topic for another discussion. For now, I want to point out that when she talks to Shizune about Hokage duties, her alcohol and gambling addiction etc, and talks to Sakura about things like medical ninjutsu. Overall any scene with Tsunade in it, whether she is talking to female or male characters, is a good credit to her character and to the series as a whole.
Another good example is Chiyo. (At this point you might have noticed that the adult women are pretty good, it is the teenage girls who are the problem). Her interactions with Sakura not only made herself a better character, but also helped contribute to Sakura’s character development.
Sakura and Ino at the beginning would only talk about Sasuke, however this was (partially) during the Chuunin Exams.
Then we get to the pretty good female characters that for some reason or another do not interact with other women. This includes characters such as Temari, Konan, and Anko. (Tenten might have fit into this category if she were in the story more). While this technically violates rule 2 of the Bechdel test, that doesn’t stop these women from being good, interesting characters.
All in all, while it is true that Naruto fails the Bechdel Test in many circumstances, I don’t think it is fair to label it as a “sexist” story, or one that has bad female characters. Certainly there is a lot of room for improvement, but considering the amount of characters Kishimoto was juggling, I think he did a fairly good job given the circumstances.
1) There are at least two female characters
2) They talk to each other
3) About something other than men
At first glance it would seem that Naruto fails this test pretty severely. Most of the female characters, even when talking to each other, only talk about boys (particularly Sakura, Ino, Hinata, and Karin).
However, I don’t think the series should be labeled a complete failure in the area of female characters. After all, there are great female characters with a lot more to them.
The best example would be Tsunade. Tusande is arguably the best written female character in Naruto for several reasons, but that is a topic for another discussion. For now, I want to point out that when she talks to Shizune about Hokage duties, her alcohol and gambling addiction etc, and talks to Sakura about things like medical ninjutsu. Overall any scene with Tsunade in it, whether she is talking to female or male characters, is a good credit to her character and to the series as a whole.
Another good example is Chiyo. (At this point you might have noticed that the adult women are pretty good, it is the teenage girls who are the problem). Her interactions with Sakura not only made herself a better character, but also helped contribute to Sakura’s character development.
Sakura and Ino at the beginning would only talk about Sasuke, however this was (partially) during the Chuunin Exams.
Then we get to the pretty good female characters that for some reason or another do not interact with other women. This includes characters such as Temari, Konan, and Anko. (Tenten might have fit into this category if she were in the story more). While this technically violates rule 2 of the Bechdel test, that doesn’t stop these women from being good, interesting characters.
All in all, while it is true that Naruto fails the Bechdel Test in many circumstances, I don’t think it is fair to label it as a “sexist” story, or one that has bad female characters. Certainly there is a lot of room for improvement, but considering the amount of characters Kishimoto was juggling, I think he did a fairly good job given the circumstances.
