Are you a sports girl who gets all excited for the NFL season? Tired of turning on the TV and only hearing guys talk about football? Yeah, us too. That’s why we’re on a mission to make sports coverage more inclusive (and pleasure) for everyone! We launched Betches Sports because we’re passionate about delivering breaking sports news with a witty, feminist flair. We’re just cool that way. So if you’re a sports fan who cares about women’s rights and quality memes, you’re more than welcome.

Of course, we want to see more female presenters this football season, so we will be using the official Betchdel test (our version of the Bechdel test) to measure female representation in sports media.

What is the Bechdel test?

The Bechdel Test, which measures the representation of women in film, originated from Alison Bechdel’s 1985 comic strip, “Dykes to Watch Out For.” In the famous strip, the cartoonist and writer depicted two queer women chatting about their criteria for deciding which films to watch. According to the strip, there are three simple rules: There must be two women in the film, they must talk to each other, and they must talk about something other than a man. Now I realize that seems like a worryingly low bar for feminism, but… a shocking number of films fail the test.

Alison described the rules as “a little lesbian joke in an alternative feminist newspaper,” but over the decades the Bechdel Test has become a mainstream tool for assessing gender representation in media. While it’s most commonly used for movies, the test can also be applied to books, TV shows, theater, and more. We use it for sports!

Introducing our version… The Betchdel Test

Our twist, The Betchdel Test, measures female representation in sports media. Because when’s the last time you saw two women at an NFL roundtable? Yeah, no images spring to mind either. Here’s how us test works:

Rule #1: We need… at least two female experts for a broadcast.

Think of Erin Andrews and Mina Limes in the same room. I know, almost impossible.

Rule #2: They must talk to each other.

And not just a quick “hi!” These women need to actually have a conversation with real, engaging dialogue.

Rule #3: …Somewhere other than the sidelines.

Notice how women are often relegated to sideline reporters? We’re looking for moments where rule #1 and rule #2 happen in a studio, not just on the field.

Use our scorecard below to see if the sportscast you’re watching passes the Betchdel test. Follow Betches Sports on Instagram to stay up to date with our coverage all week long!