Page 31 - The Staunch Test

THE STAUNCH TEST

10. How we use the Staunch Test categories

The Staunch Test provides a way of framing violence to women on screen, which
in turn enables us to see how and how often it is used. The Test tends to
concentrate on films and TV dramas that were made as thrillers. But there are
many other titles, particularly ones we would designate ‘fails’, that don’t fit

neatly into the thriller genre. These will get a mention in our social media or in
the database if it seems relevant, or if someone submits a rating for a film or TV
show they’d like to see included on the listings.

Staunch Test Pass

The Pass category is reserved for thrillers that are about virtually anything other
than violence to women! They may be adventures, or sci-fi (sexual assault is
rarely a big feature of sci-fi or tales set on space craft — despite the pent-up
urges or machismo you might expect when men with female crew mates boldly
go.) Murder might occur in space, but probably not because she’s a woman if
the victim is female. It is more likely to be a bid for power or control, or fear she

has been taken over by an alien force. Overall, the body count in sci-fi is fairly
even, although the male/female recruitment balance probably is not.

Staunch Test Fail

This is by far the largest Staunch Test category in thrillers, with sexual and
physical violence, including the rape and murder of women turning up with
exhausting regularity. It is usually well flagged, but not always, and sometimes
we must wait until the closing scenes for that surprise moment. Staunch Test
Fails often rely heavily on well-worn tropes with the camera relishing and
fetishizing women’s fear and trepidation, playing on underlying sexual threat
(even when the danger is mainly physical), or employing life-and-death play such
as choking to indicate a man’s power to kill a woman, even if he doesn’t carry it

out. Pursuing, depicted as a form of hunting, turns up frequently, as does a
woman violently killed to kick-start the more important journey of an avenging
man. The list is endless, though rarely very original.