How are women represented in 'Thelma and Louise'?

How are women represented in ‘Thelma and Louise’?

‘Thelma and Louise’ (1) is about two friends who go on a road trip together but end up getting in some negative situations. But going deeper into the film, women are represented in a certain way.

At the start of the film, we are introduced to the central characters, Thelma and Louise. The camera offers an ideology that although is looked down upon, still is heavily present in the media. Whenever either of the two characters moves in their settings, the camera pans along with them, keeping them central frame. This would connote that the audience are fixated on the appearance of the women, seeming to never take their eyes of them. The theory ‘Male Gaze’ (2) can be applied to this scene. Laura Mulvey published the theory that suggested one of the main pleasures of cinema is scopophilia. She suggested that the male audience would view female characters as the subject of their desiring gaze. Mulvey then goes on to say that women are denied a viewpoint of their own and instead participate in the pleasure of men looking at women. The part of the theory that suggests women are simply subjects to be looked at can be applied to the scene I began describing at the start of the paragraph. The rest of the theory however is challenged in later scenes. There is a quote from Nick Lacey’s book ‘Representation of Gender’. It quotes “There are twice as many topless women than topless men in the magazine compared” (3) . This emphasises this almost outdated ideology that women are solely sex objects. It suggests that women serve the purpose to be observed, not to observe.

The film takes a post-modern approach to the plot; by accepting the way women have been represented in the past, and later challenging the notion. This happens only step-by-step though. A scene not so long after the one I’ve just described emphasises this. In the diner setting were Louise works, the mise-en-scene is very busy and has a confine space; all of the workers present are wearing the same uniform as Louise. There is also a conversation Louise has in the scene with two young teens; Thelma attempts to give them advice about smoking. There is a sense of irony which is increased when the audience see Louise in the next scene smoking. This scene emphasises a situation that was current at the time of the release of the film. It suggests that the role of women are changing, both in society and the media, but neither feel strong enough in their environment to express their liberation. An example of this in the scene is the fact that no one takes Louise's advice about smoking; the first teen doesn't, the second teen doesn't and Louise doesn't even take her own advice. There is a quote in Lacey's book that I feel also supports this point. It quotes "gender is routinely portrayed to traditional cultural stereotypes" (4) . The quote suggests that women in the media are portrayed as 'sheep', all stereotypically similar. It supports that notion that women in that society were afriad to express their true liberation, and so conformed. The fact that all the waitresses in the scene are all dressed in the same uniform in the scene supports my point. The theory of 'Post-modernism' can be applied to this scene in particular. "A current term inside and outside the academic study of populare culture" (5), put simply the theory suggets that the media text is influenced by and is well aware of past media texts. A good example is the movie 'Scream' (6) , who's plot is well aware of past horror conventions and so play's them to its' advantage. For example in 'Thelma and Louise', the film is well aware of how women have been represented as a whole in the past and so Ridley Scott played on these stereotypes. The reason for this was so the characters later liberation would be an even bigger contrast and so seem a bigger achievment. 

Later in the film we see the two central characters who now seem to be expressing their liberation. There is a scene were Thelma and Louise request a truck driver to pull over from the highway. The truck driver is fairly stereotypical in the sense that he's disrespectful and has a graphic language. This has been done to again emphasise the contrast between the two genders; the male being very generic, stereotypical and conventional, wereas the women challenege the stereotypical convention and so again the contrast makes their liberation look like more of an achievment. In the scene the women overpower the man, which yet again challeneges conventions of traditional representations of women. In Lacey's book there is a great quote that supports my point; "the traditional image of the 'wife-mother-housewife' is now being replaced by images of sexually assertive, confident and ambitious women" (7) . It suggests that the representation is changing massively, and the film seems to be reflecting the ideology superbly. The quote suggests housewives turn into confident ambitous women - which is exactly what happens in the film. Thelma used to be a passive housewife who was even nervous to ask ehr husband to go out, but now she's a confident woman who blew up a truck. The theory of 'Archetype's" (8) can be applied here I feel. The archetypical character of the 'strong independant woman' was sort of born with this film, as it was one of the first films to demonstrate this character. This was one of the many things that made this film so unconventional, and also so successful.


(1) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103074/
(2) Laura Mulvey's theory from 1975
(3) Nick Lacey, Image and Representation, Pg 191
(4) Nick Lacey, Image and Representation, Pg 192
(5) Storey, 2009
(6) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117571/
(7) Nick Lacey, Image and Representation, Pg192
(8) Propp's character type theory