Representation in Thelma and Louise

In 1991 Ridley Scott successfully created “Thelma and Louise” and turned many stereotypes built around women upside down, much to the feminists delight and showed how women are victims of this patriarchal society we live in. Thelma and Louise are forced to be criminals because of men; the male society is the reason why a harmless girl’s weekend away was turned into a suicide. As the tale unfolds we see how their personalities react with the situation and how they change dramatically. When they are finally free from men they enjoy themselves for once, although maybe their idea of fun was more than harmless.

Straight away we know that this film is a Road movie and road movies are usually men so the convention has already been changed. Thelma and Louise are escaping from the law travelling through the middle of nowhere just like the men usually did in these types of films. We see a scan shot of the mountains focusing on the road which reinforces what type of film we are watching although it is involving woman not men.

During the beginning of the film the women seem very stereotypical. Louise is working as a waitress and Thelma is the little “housewife” at home in the kitchen. Her husband is very arrogant towards her and tr

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When they stop at the club Thelma appears already more rebellious. Both Thelma and Louise are equally dominant and equally happy and having fun. Despite both these points she still sticks to her stereotype, maybe out of habit by cleaning the house before she leaves. The man badmouths Thelma by saying “I shouldda gone ahead and fucked her” and Louise gets angry with this because women stick together and it also maybe hit a soft spot in Louises heart and she shoots him. After all they are already wanted by police. From this point on everything changes. Louise isn’t a stereotypical woman to begin with. The policeman is crying representing policemen as weak so Thelma makes him get in the boot. She just wants “to have fun” seeing as she hasn’t been out since marrying Daryl. From that point on they don’t care about anything in the world but the road ahead of them.

There is a point in the film where the whole film itself changes. Scott shows that there are many different types of men in the world. As he tries to rape her she slaps him across the face which the conventional woman would not of done. There are the horrible, dominating cruel men like the man who tried to rape Thelma and truck driver yet there is also the nice men who consider woman their equals and want to help like Jimmy and the police officer.

Approximate Word count = 1307
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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