Bechdel Test Movie List

Several conversations between the main character and her mother, her best friend, the guidance counselor, and the fundamentalist -- usually about guys or slutty reputations, but not always.

I think it only passes two of the requirements. The majority of the conversation revolved around men or (heterosexual) sex, enough so that any snippet of conversation that wasn't about that is almost null.Overall, the topics covered by most of the conversations between women had some relation to men in their lives--boyfriends/husbands, reputation for sleeping with multiple men, etc. Granted, that's what the movie is about, but it still doesn't pass in my eyes :/

LJ, I view discussion of sex, sexual relationships and sexual reputations as separate from discussions about men. In a movie focusing on heterosexual activities, men are going to be peripheral to any discussion about sex, but they are not the topic. Reputation, and the sexual double standard are social constructs. The topic of conversation is really sociology and how it informs our gender biases, not men or a man.

I agree with CMO & the rating. The majority of the movie happens between various duos of women talking, as Ruff points out, and the only time I can think of when two of the female characters are actually talking about a man is when a girl's boyfriend goes to the hospital and she is explaining the situation. Most other conversations are about themselves, how they feel & what they're going through, which involves their sexuality but is not /about/ men.

That being said, I still think this movie was terrible.

And, notably, Olive and her mum talk for a while about 1) Olive getting sent to the principal's office for calling another girl a bad name 2) clothing and 3) how she spent her whole weekend at home.

I also agree with CMO. The discussions of reputation is, at least at times in this movie, distinct from a discussion about men. Although the movie features a number of men it's not really ABOUT men per se and is really about relationships and reputations between female characters.

I disagree with Joy's comment saying the character's talks are concerning their own sexuality... I think the focus of their talks are more about what other's will think of them, and their reputations, and how they are perceived, often through a male's perspective. Their talks are not always about a MAN in particular but all their subjects concern a man in pretty obvious ways.

@Angie;

I'd disagree on the specifics of your argument; the issues of reputation in Easy A are far more feminine than masculine. Yes, that she has (reputedly) has sex with many men is what causes the talks, but the sexual politics that drives the film is carried primarily through three female characters: Olive, Marianne and Rhiannon. It's a stretch at best to say that Olive and Rosemary's talks are about men at all times -- They do talk about men, yes, but a lot more than that.

Pretty ridiculous to disagree with the rating. You only need one sentence between two characters. This movie is full of conversations that aren't about men, even peripherally.

Olive and Rhiannon have an extended conversation about the wild, sex-filled weekend Olive supposedly had with an older boy. Except of course that boy doesn't exist; Olive made the whole thing up in order to avoid spending the weekend with her friend's family.

I'm not sure what the Bechdel Test has to say if the conversation is about an imaginary man, although that probably makes it worse (do female characters have so few men to discuss that they have to invent more of them?).

Having said that, there are plenty of other conversations that don't directly involve men (real or otherwise) so I would personally pass the film.