Passes the Bechdel test

Mean Girls

Name: Mean Girls
Released: 2004

2004. Directed by Mark Waters, written by Rosalind Wiseman and Tina Fey.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
43 women characters. 22 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 35 scenes out of 144.
Yes 3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.

The film

Lindsay Lohan stars as Cady Heron, a 16 year old homeschooled girl who not only makes the mistake of falling for Aaron Samuels (Jonathan Bennett), the ex-boyfriend of queenbee Regina George (Rachel McAdams), but also unintentionally joins The Plastics, led by Regina herself. Join Cady as she learns that high school life can and will be really tough.

Released: 30 Apr 2004
Genres: Comedy
Rated: PG-13
IMDb: 7.1 / 10
Metascore: 66 / 100
Awards: 7 wins & 25 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

Women
Men
Not in the cast list
Bigger name, more lines

Cady 322 lines, woman
Regina 115 lines, woman
Janis 69 lines, woman
Damian 63 lines, man
Gretchen 63 lines, woman
Ms. Norbury 54 lines, woman
Karen 50 lines, woman
Aaron 46 lines, man
Mr. Duvall 34 lines, man
Kevin Gnor 21 lines, man

Full cast, 68 people

Lindsay Lohan as Cady Heron
Rachel McAdams as Regina George
Lizzy Caplan as Janis Ian
Lacey Chabert as Gretchen Wieners
Amanda Seyfried as Karen Smith
Daniel Franzese as Damian
Jonathan Bennett as Aaron Samuels
Rajiv Surendra as Kevin Gnapoor
Tina Fey as Ms. Norbury
Tim Meadows as Mr. Duvall
Ana Gasteyer as Cady's Mom
Neil Flynn as Cady's Dad
Amy Poehler as Mrs. George
Dwayne Hill as Coach Carr
Diego Klattenhoff as Shane Oman
Molly Shanahan as Kristen Hadley
Elana Shilling as Spelling Girl
Graham Kartna as Homeschooled Boy
Ely Henry as Homeschooled Boy
David Aherne as Homeschooled Boy
Ayo Agbonkpolo as African Warrior
Jonathan Malen as Kristen's Boyfriend
Jeff Moser as "Farting" Guy
Miranda Edwards as Michigan Girl
Les Porter as Chemistry Teacher
Eve Crawford as English Teacher
Jack Newman as History Teacher
Michelyn Emelle as Music Teacher
Bathsheba Garnett as German Teacher
Ky Pham as Trang Pak
Danielle Nguyen as Sun Jin Dinh
Daniel DeSanto as Jason
Alisha Morrison as Lea Edwards
Chris Anton as Huge Guy
Jan Caruana as Emma Gerber
Wai Choy as Mathlete Tim Pak
Julia Chantrey as Amber D'Alessio
Jacky Chamberlain as Giselle Sgro
Olympia Lukis as Jessica Lopez
Stefanie Drummond as Bethany Byrd
Kristen Bone as Short Girl
Jessie Wright as Cady 5 Years Old
Tyson Fennell as Nfume
Stephan Dickson as Animal Dancer
Andreja Punkris as Animal Dancer
Noelle Boggio as Animal Dancer
Jordan Dawe as Animal Dancer
Alexandra Stapley as Taylor Wedell
Laura de Carteret as Mrs. Wedell
Nicole Crimi as Kylie George
Erin Norah Thompson as Dawn Schweitzer
Dan Willmott as Mr. George
Michelle Hoffman as Kissing Girl
Valerie Casault as Kissing Girl
Sharron Matthews as Joan the Secretary
Jo Chim as Salesperson
Randi Lee Butcher as Skater Girl
Erin Jarvis as Skater Girl
Kaylen Christensen as Jock Girl
Jill Morrison as Crying Girl
David Sazant as Marymount Captain
Clare Preuss as Caroline Krafft
Bruce Hunter as Mathlete Moderator
Megan Millington as Junior Plastic
Tara Shelley as Junior Plastic
Shannon Todd as Junior Plastic
David Reale as Glenn Coco (uncredited)
Krysta Carter as Wannabe (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 3 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 4% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 144

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers

Scenes	Women's lines	Men's lines
1 to 3	2	0
4 to 6	13	0
7 to 9	13	0
10 to 12	25	12
13 to 15	23	9
16 to 18	39	7
19 to 21	25	0
22 to 24	13	6
25 to 27	68	0
28 to 30	25	7
31 to 33	22	6
34 to 36	2	0
37 to 39	13	6
40 to 42	8	3
43 to 45	12	2
46 to 48	24	3
49 to 51	25	2
52 to 54	11	4
55 to 57	5	2
58 to 60	13	6
61 to 63	3	2
64 to 66	16	5
67 to 69	12	1
70 to 72	5	1
73 to 75	5	1
76 to 78	11	6
79 to 81	26	10
82 to 84	7	0
85 to 87	41	0
88 to 90	19	0
91 to 93	18	2
94 to 96	8	2
97 to 99	34	16
100 to 102	5	3
103 to 105	3	3
106 to 108	14	6
109 to 111	26	9
112 to 114	62	8
115 to 117	10	3
118 to 120	8	4
121 to 123	7	4
124 to 126	4	6
127 to 129	0	0
130 to 132	12	23
133 to 135	15	7
136 to 138	17	8
139 to 141	4	0
142 to 144	6	1

The evidence

Straight from the script
Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: the passing scenes

The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.

CADY: In my life so far, we'd lived in 9 countries on 3 continents. But it's not like I didn't have structure growing up. I'd spend all day in the… CHIP: Two large females and three cubs. The females appear to be searching out their late mornin~ prey. They're focused on something 10 to 20 mete…

CADY: And then at night I'd do schoolwork with my mom. CADY: My favorite subject was always math. CHIP: You're done with this chapter already? Okay, let's start on those, um, inverse functions. Jeez. C.Z;DY Cause with math you're either right o…

BETSY: I got it! I got it! CADY: You really got it? BETSY: We're going home. Chip climbs down to give Betsy a hug and a kiss. CADY: My mom's articles about the familial patterns of large cats had earned her a +ull professorship at Northwestern University. Cady is alone in…

CADY: Hello, Evanston, Illinois. CADY: Evanston was a lot like Africa. Except in every single way. They pull up across the street from Evanston High School. CHIP: I know you'll make us very proud. BETSY: Are you nervous? It's okay to be nervous. I"m nervous for you. B'.lt nervousness is perfectly ~ervous. Nervous. Nervous. Nervous. Nervous. C…

JANIS: Where are you going first period? Cady refers to her computer printed roster. CADY: 10th Grade Health. Room Bl4. JANIS: I think that's in the back building.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 79 are women's.

779 lines from women, 206 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

43 women and 25 men in the cast. 22 women and 9 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

A woman speaks the first line. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 7 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 77% of the words (10,227), men 23% (3,040). Women have 79% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.

Exhibit E: the test the other way

Run the other way, for men, the film scores 2 out of 3.

Conversations between two named characters

Two women

Two men

Exhibit F: behind the camera

6 of the 11 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 49% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Mark Waters (man)
Written by: Tina Fey (woman)
Produced by: Lorne Michaels (man)
Shot by: Daryn Okada (man)
Edited by: Wendy Greene Bricmont (woman)
Music by: Rolfe Kent (man)
Production design by: Cary White (man)
Costumes by: Mary Jane Fort (woman)
Cast by: Marci Liroff (woman), Susan Shopmaker (woman), Robin D. Cook (woman)