How the Bechdel Test and its Variants Reveal Inside Out 2’s Complicated Relationship with Representation

Originally Submitted April 9, 2025 for Gender, Race, and Popular Culture.

With the Hollywood norm of male dominance (Feminist Frequency, 2012, 09:22), young girls and the even more underrepresented queer individuals (Baume, 2021; Benshoff, 2020) had a new film in which they could see themselves when Disney and Pixar released Inside Out 2 (Mann, 2024). Now is the film a good source of representation? By analysing with the Bechdel Test, the Bechdel Test for Race, and the Mako Mori test, it becomes a bit complicated. Created by cartoonist Alison Bechdel, the Bechdel Test was a response to the lack of quality female representation in film. As women’s roles are often situated around men, the test requires a film to have two or more women talking about something other than a man (No Film School, 2018, 0:32). The Bechdel Test for Race, conceived by Alaya Dawn Johnson, tests a film on if contains at least two people of colour talking about “something other than a White person” (Feminist Frequency, 2012, 8:26)—which was, and still is, even less common. Lastly, the Mako Mori test (named after the character from Legendary Pictures’ 2013 film, Pacific Rim) was created for films that did not pass the Bechdel Test, testing for strong female characters whose narrative arcs are “not about supporting a man’s story” (Mako Mori test, 2016). Inside Out 2 (Mann, 2024) frequently presents moments that pass the original Bechdel Test, particularly with its large focus on main character Riley; unfortunately, in doing so, the film forgoes quality representation of people of colour and when removing its heteronormative base, struggles to also pass the Mako Mori test. As such, Inside Out 2 (Mann, 2024), a story of a young White girl dealing with the terrifying reality of change, is a film that cannot definitively be considered good representation.

Disney and Pixar’s Inside Out 2 (Mann, 2024) is the follow up to 2015’s Inside Out and follows a now 13-year-old Riley Andersen as she attends an ice hockey camp along with her best friends Bree and Grace, and her personified emotions. An influx of new emotions caused by puberty dramatically changes Riley’s personality, driving her to fit in with her soon-to-be high school’s hockey team, the Fire Hawks, and to impress team captain Valentina “Val” Ortiz while pushing her friends away. Early in the film, Riley learns that she will not be attending the same high school as Bree and Grace, causing a small rift to form between them, and more importantly, a fear in Riley of losing her friends. In response, the emotion Anxiety removes Riley’s sense of self and aims to craft a “better Riley” (28:23), one who is worthy of being a Fire Hawk and Val. To set her plan in motion, Anxiety removes Joy and the other four original emotions from Riley’s emotion control centre. To avoid Riley’s life and personality from being irreparably ruined, Joy and company to go on a quest to get back to the control room while also confronting their own anxieties. Throughout Inside Out 2 (Mann, 2024), audiences see Riley grow distant from Bree and Grace, Joy dealing with the idea that Riley might not need her anymore, Anxiety’s over-exerting of Riley to the point of pain, and the fact that change is scary for everyone.

With a cast of characters almost entirely made up of women, Inside Out 2 (Mann, 2024) has many opportunities to pass the original Bechdel Test. A prominent example is when Joy and Sadness talk about Riley’s memories and beliefs (9:12), and Sadness says she is worried she will mess things up (9:28). Due to the emotions living to serve Riley, almost all of their conversations in some way revolve around her. There is one moment, though, that would fail the Bechdel Test. When the original five emotions are locked away in Riley’s memory vault that contains her deepest secrets, viewers are introduced to video game heartthrob, Lance Slashblade, and Disgust makes her attraction very known (31:37). Sadness questions why the character is present, leading Disgust to talk about Riley’s secret crush and Joy saying she herself is not attracted to him. With a runtime of 96 minutes, this 10 second scene is not enough to fail Inside Out 2 (Mann, 2024).

As discussed by Anita Sarkeesian, using short scenes is not a good indicator of a pass and leads to debates, so she purposed modifying the test to say a scene needs to be more than 60 seconds (Feminist Frequency, 2012, 4:50). There are two really great scenes, one where the Fire Hawks express their annoyance with Riley to each other (Mann, 2024, 25:31), which is then followed by a conversation between Riley and Val (26:25). These scenes feature girls talking about Riley and not a man, therefore, they pass—except both are less than 60 seconds. This does not discount the impact of these scenes though; these are vital moments for Riley’s motivation and work well for the Mako Mori test as well. There is one scene at the film’s climax when Riley has a panic attack (Mann, 2024, 1:13:54) that does last more than 60 seconds. Two passable moments occur here, the first is Joy and Anxiety’s narrative end where they both learn that they “…don’t get to choose who Riley is” (1:17:23). The second is when Riley’s panic attack stops (1:19:26) and Bree and Grace enter the penalty box where Riley is sitting, asking if she is okay (1:19:56). Riley then apologizes, saying she was scared to lose her best friends, and they make up (1:20:07). Whether these are considered separate scenes or one long scene, both moments last longer than 60 seconds, proving that Inside Out 2 (Mann, 2024) passes the original Bechdel Test.

Inside Out 2 (Mann, 2024) being able to pass the original Bechdel Test is a great thing since the cast of characters for the film are almost entirely women; where the film struggles, however, is in its representation of race. Inside Out 2 (Mann, 2024) features several people of colour, including Riley’s best friends Bree and Grace and many members of the Fire Hawks. Unfortunately, all of these characters—many of whom go unnamed—are there purely to serve as sources for Riley’s motivation, affection, and overall narrative. As such, Inside Out 2 (Mann, 2024) cannot pass the Bechdel Test for Race. Everything these characters do is either for or about Riley. The team discussion where the Fire Hawks are annoyed with Riley (25:31), the Fire Hawks discussing Coach Roberts’ notebook and how it has her thoughts about Riley in it (41:54), even Coach Roberts herself, a Black woman, only appears on screen when Riley is present. The only things we know about Riley’s best friends is that they met in class (4:22) and that they will not be attending the same high school (Mann, 2024, 15:30). Val has it the worst.

Valentina Ortiz, the superstar player, is never seen showing off her skills, her sole purpose in the film is to be both a goal to surpass and an object of affection (romantic or platonic, depending on how you read it) for Riley and to reassure her when she is feeling insecure (Mann, 2024, 26:25) or needing to feel like she is doing the right thing (having “the same idea” for early morning practice; 37:33). Valentina does not feel like a fleshed-out character. Coach Roberts, Bree, Grace, and Dani (the other named Fire Hawk) do not feel like fleshed-out characters. Their subjectivity does not seem to be present; they are objects to move Riley’s story along. For Inside Out 2 (Mann, 2024), Riley takes on the traits of the dominant male, being portrayed as the counter-hegemonic subjective female, but as a result, all other women in the film, as Laura Mulvey would describe it (1975, as cited in Sturken & Cartwright, 2018, p. 121), are portrayed as passive to varying degrees. And then there are Riley’s emotions, who are literally created to serve Riley. This brings up the question: are Riley’s emotions classified as people of colour? This might seem odd, but it is worth considering.

One of the draws of Inside Out 2 (Mann, 2024) is the differences between Riley’s emotions, including their colour palettes. Riley’s emotions all have different skin colours, and while this may be a simple marketing and design choice, it does allow for further discussion with the Bechdel Test for Race. Riley herself is a White woman, and if her emotions are a part of her, should they also be classified as White? They are treated as separate characters with their own personalities, accents (in the case of Ennui), genders (Anger, Fear, and Embarrassment are male), and as mentioned, skin colours, which could lead one to argue that they should not be counted as White. As a counterargument, there are instances where the emotions are considered a collective unit within Riley, such as when Joy, Anger, Disgust, and Fear are lost in Riley’s larger memory vault: “We can’t even find the back of our own mind” (Mann, 2024, 49:32), which would imply the emotions are extensions of Riley and could be classified as White. Classifying the emotions as separate people of colour provides more representation, though the outcome remains the same.

Everything the emotions do in Inside Out 2 (Mann, 2024) is to serve Riley, their White host, and as the Bechdel Test for Race requires that people of colour talk about “something other than a White person” (Feminist Frequency, 2012, 8:27), it further fails—but not fully. While their various discussions about Bree, Grace, and Val would technically pass the test, the meaning behind those discussions is in relation to Riley and not the emotions themselves, making the pass questionable. Partway through Inside Out 2 (Mann, 2024), Joy tries to convince Sadness to get to the control room as Sadness doubts herself and Joy encourages her (39:24). “Joy, I can’t do it. I’m not strong like you are” (39:59). “I know you, Sadness. You are strong…you got this” (40:02). While the scene is backdropped by wanting to help Riley, Riley is not mentioned, this dialogue is about Sadness and Sadness alone. This scene is not 60 seconds, but it most definitely passes the original Bechdel Test and aids in Sadness’s narrative arc while not supporting a man, helping towards Inside Out 2 (Mann, 2024) passing the Mako Mori test. If the emotions are considered people of colour, then this scene also passes the Bechdel Test for Race. Is that enough for the film to fully pass that test? As Anita Sarkeesian says, it is debatable on “…whether one brief and questionable exchange makes a movie pass the test or not” (Feminist Frequency, 2012, 4:54). As such, Inside Out 2 (Mann, 2024) as a whole does not pass the Bechdel Test for Race, but this is the only scene in the film that would pass all three tests, giving it an important role in the film and an important place in Sadness’s narrative arc in for the Mako Mori test.

The Mako Mori test for Inside Out 2 (Mann, 2024) is an easy pass, as no character in it has a narrative arc that is about supporting a man, instead, with the exception of Sadness becoming less insecure. most are all about supporting Riley. Unlike the Bechdel Test for Race, this support, does not disqualify it from passing, quite the opposite. That does not make it any less problematic though. Even Riley’s own narrative is often in service to Val, such as when Anxiety shows a potential future in which Riley embarrasses herself in front of Val by goofing off with her friends (Mann, 2024, 22:18) or when Riley (because of Anxiety) shapes herself after Val by dying her hair (1:03:27) and deciding to get some extra ice time (37:33). It is not until her panic attack and when her new sense of self forms (Mann, 2024, 1:13:54, 1:18:27), that Riley’s narrative shifts to being about herself with others instead of for others.

The Mako Mori test only states narratives should not be in support of a man, but this has elements of heteronormativity. Anita Sarkeesian points out that the Bechdel Test was designed because women in film were and are frequently positioned in problematic ways (Feminist Frequency, 2012, 1:01, 7:21), and as objects, they do not have agency or self-worth (Sturken & Cartwright, 2018); but what about women who do not align with heteronormative rules? For someone like Riley, whose affection for Val can be perceived as infatuation, where does that leave her? The talking about a man (placing him as the subject of desire) is replaced with talking about a woman (placing Val as the subject of desire), which is the same thing films that fail the Bechdel Test are doing. For the characters in Inside Out 2 (Mann, 2024), their whole being is tied to Riley; and for Riley, her self-worth and motivations are tied to Val, not to herself (until the end). The Mako Mori test should instead test for a narrative in which women support themselves. The Bechdel Test and its variants show the poor representation of women and people of colour; however, when a character’s whole personality or screen time revolves around one specific character (Val for Riley and Riley for literally everyone else), are they truly being represented? Inside Out 2 (Mann, 2024), provides a great premise for passing the Bechdel Test and Mako Mori test, but when considered outside of their heteronormative definitions, it becomes grey.

Despite this limitation, this does not mean the Bechdel Test and its variants, the Bechdel Test for Race and the Mako Mori test, are not useful, for an industry that is driven by men and the male gaze, these tests allow audiences and creators to better assess the progress towards wider representation and the stories that are being told. For Inside Out 2 (Mann, 2024), the character of Riley, and even her emotions, do provide audiences with an experience that is not normally shared on the screen. Many women’s lives are forced around men, and while there have been movements (such as South Korea’s 4B; Ford, 2024), the societal norm is still men in power and the subjects, while women are the objects (Sturken & Cartwright, 2018). If, as Sturken and Cartright state, our “…responses to film are in part unconscious…” (2018, p. 120), then the way these films are designed trigger specific ways of thinking. If there are no good films that provide young girls a role model or even just a way to see themselves on the screen with characters who are supporting themselves, then what continues is the proliferation of gender norms and hegemonic sexuality. In its own way, Inside Out 2 (Mann, 2024) itself, and all the films that pass a version if of the Bechdel Test, provide an oppositional gaze on behalf of their audience.

While the oppositional gaze according to hooks (2015) deals with a Black female audience member being able to critically assess the harmful nature of the representation of Black women, it can be used as a counter to the broader “active/male and passive/female” (Mulvey, n.d., as cited in hooks, 2015, p. 122). With this in mind, the Bechdel Test and its variants can be used to create a film that gives women an example, escape, or influential entertainment that resists the dominant ideologies. While Inside Out 2 (Mann, 2024) struggles to pass the Bechdel Test for Race, it does still give examples of the hardships a young girl may face and provides a narrative that follows Riley going from wanting to change herself to impress someone to wanting to be herself. Especially for the often Othered queer individuals, having Riley’s affections being aimed at a girl, puts a spotlight on an immensely underrepresented (and poorly represented) group (Baume, 2021; Benshoff, 2020) that is usually cast alongside things considered “abnormal” in regard to societal norms (Rubin, 2007, p. 160). Riley’s narrative in Inside Out 2 (Mann, 2024) may not pass the Mako Mori test when observed through a non-heteronormative lens, but it does still present an all too familiar story for many queer and non-queer individuals: a fear of change and a platonic or romantic crush guiding your way through that scary time.

With Inside Out 2 (Mann, 2024), Disney and Pixar gave young girls a film that does brilliantly portray the difficulty of the transitions that happen upon entering one’s teenage years. By using the Bechdel Test as a base, the film provides many moments that resist the dominant view of passive women who live only for men. Unfortunately, by having every character exist solely for Riley’s sake, a White girl, the film fails the Bechdel Test for Race. Even when considering Riley’s own emotions as people of colour, because their motives are to better Riley, they too cause Inside Out 2 to fail. Lastly, by definition, Inside Out 2 (Mann, 2024) passes the Mako Mori test as all female characters have a narrative arc supporting a woman instead of a man; but when observed through a non-heteronormative lens, audience members see the same traits present in films that fail the test through characters’ support of Riley. Inside Out 2 (Mann, 2024) does not give quality representation to people of colour and the narratives of the majority of its cast. What it does do, is diverge from the Hollywood norm and, at the very least through Riley, provides a film that fights back against the roles of passive women and hidden queer characters, and it should be commended for that.

References

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