The Bledwel Test is a list of movies that mention menstruation. There are over 685,000 movies on IMDB (June 2024), but as few as 400 of them contain dialogue about periods. Roughly 26% of the global population menstruates, bleeding every month for around 40 years of our lives. But menstruation's representation in cinema sits at around 0.06%.
The Rules:
- The film has to acknowledge that some of us menstruate,
- without any character being ashamed of it,
- or being shamed by someone else about it.
Do you remember the first time you saw periods represented onscreen? How has cinema influenced your view of menstruation? Tell me about it.
FAQs
How do you find the films?
The main way I find relevant films is via IMDB's 'menstruation' keyword. However, this is not an inffallible method as films aren't always tagged accurately.
I'm also not the first person to create a list of 'period' movies. A quick Google search turns up similar lists on services like Letterboxd and Mubi.
Finally, I also get recommendations from friends and followers on Instagram, and the algorithm occasionally serves me a relevant film. I've also got quite good at guessing which films might fit the bill from a trailer/synopsis.
Why is it called 'The Bledwel Test'?
The name is a nod to the Bechdel-Wallace Test, a long-running project assessing women's representation in film.
How do you decide on the rating?
The rating is based on how well the film meets the three rules above. A film where a character is shamed for menstruating, would get a low rating. A film that features positive, shame-free dialogue about menstruation would get a high rating.
Why only films and not TV shows?
Because I have to draw the line somewhere. It's not an inexpensive hobby to hunt down and buy/rent over 400 movies. There are hundreds of thousands of movies on IMDB, but millions of TV show episodes. Movies being self-contained makes also it a little easier to manage.
What if I disagree with your rating?
You're welcome to email me and share your perspective.
How can I tell you about a movie I think belongs on the list?
You can email me, but please check the unwatched list first. If you are able to send me a screengrab/recording of the moment with subtitles on that's even better (but some services will prevent you from doing so).
This site is built using Eleventy. Movie data is pulled from TMDB, to a Notion database, then imported here using the notion2eleventy plugin. It uses webfonts from Google Fonts (Fraunces, Hanken Grotesk and Azeret Mono).