Bechdel Test Movie List

Not true.

In the scene where Vincent Vega goes to bug drugs over at Lance’s place, in the other room his wife, Jody is talking to Trudi about piercings. Last time I checked, piercings were not men.

Miranda is absolutely right. She mentions fellatio, but only incidentally. The point of the conversation is the piercings.

I've updated the rating from 1/3 to 3/3.

I dont know, I think it's dubious at best. She might be technically talking about a piercing (her tongue ring), but again, to say, "it enhances fellatio" references men, even if the topic is technically tongue piercings.

In the scene, Jody doesn't make her fellatio remark until Vincent asks about her tongue stud, so her conversation with Trudi is technically over at that point. The only dubious part of the scene is Jody starts off by telling Trudi that piercing is like "turning every part of your body into the tip of a penis" (or something??) which doesn't reference men specifically, but she is using a penis as a point of comparison. Not sure if that disqualifies it or not, but it seems a little irrelevant.

even if fellatio references 'men', it doesn't reference 'a man'.
'men' are conceptual, a discussion about 'men' is philosophy.
discussion about 'a man' is another thing entirely.

I agree with David. The conversation between Jody and Trudi is over by the time Vincent buts in and she tells him the reasons for a tongue piercing.

I don't think the reference that a piercing "turns every part of your body into the tip of a penis" would serve to disqualify the conversation.

Firstly, and as I take the definition in the Bechdel test to mean, they are not talking about a specific man. I think the 3rd limb of the test is to show that women can, do and should talk about things other than what males are doing. So all too often women will only talk about what the male protagonist is doing, as if thats the most important thing in the world to them.

Secondly, it doesn't even refer to men in general (note that the test refers to a man, not men, i've just added this for completeness). This is to suggest that women only ever talk about men, again as if they're the most important thing in their lives and that there's nothing else for them to talk about. That is to say they don't talk about love, marriage etc. This conversion is not like that at all. Jody is merely making a comparison. Also she has a whole monologue on piercing with a needle instead of a gun.

For these reasons I think this is definitely a qualifying conversation.

So wait, Trina, women cannot talk about sex now? Because that inherently has to do with a man? What if the woman worked for a men's clothing store, or coached a little league boys baseball team, and spoke about work with another woman? Just because men are implicitly involved in what they're talking about that's not the test. They aren't talking about "a man" or about "men". This is a classic example of getting too bogged down in rules and are losing sight of the real issue.

You are also all assuming she's straight and could only possibly be talking about a man going down on her. Yes, she has a boyfriend, but she could be bi - she never says specifically "it enhances fellatio from men"

Not sure where this "tip of a penis" quote is coming from.. the word "penis" doesn't appear in the screenplay and nothing like the line you mentioned is in the exchange between Judy and Trudi: www.imsdb.com/scripts/Pulp-Fiction.html

I think that if there's only a single conversation a few seconds long in an entire movie and we can't even clearly distinguish if it's about a/her guy, the test is failed.

This was the movie I came to check first as I wondered how the piercings scene would be taken.

One could argue the conversation between the women technically passes as the women are discussing piercings, and a penis is a male appendage but not a man.

However, if the conversation between the women only exists to set up a comment to a man about performing fellatio (not oral sex as some are saying but fellatio which is by definition sucking dick), one could argue that it sort of fails.

Personally I think it's a technical pass and enjoy reading the differing opinions. Think the test and its origins are very clever and informative :)

People keep mentioning the fact that Jody mentions a penis and the act of fellatio, but this doesn't reference men in the slightest. Penises are not equivalent to men. Women can also have penises.

It passes the technicalities of the test, but shows how the test is not a great indicator of feminism or progressivism. No two women have any meaningful interactions. Its all about men and how women relate to men. Excellent film, but highlights the fact Tarantino doesn't know how to write women very well. Death Proof makes this even more obvious.

I would disagree, it isn't obvious that this conversation is between two women because vincent is part of the conversation. He could have been active in the conversation before the scene starts. It also references fellatio and penis's.. clearly fails if you ask me.