How Women are Represented in Thelma and Louise!

From the beginning clip of Thelma and Louise we can already see a construction of the roles the two main protagonists play as ‘stereotypical’ women, the film contrasts this and also debates the stereotypical view because both of the main characters are female. This firstly changes the view of the film and its audience. The film begins with a wide panning shot of a barren desert land.  This setting is usually connected with a Western genre styled film, which is largely male orientated, but then cuts to a cheesy 70’s tune with a setting of an American diner, which the majority of the mise-en-scene is filled with female characters.

One of the main characters ‘Louise’ struts around the diner as an over confident waitress, delivering some untamed verbal comments at complete strangers eating in the diner. Showing she is comfortable and in control of the busy diner, the use of low camera angles adds emphasis to this.  When she lights up a cigarette picks up the phone and walks into another room the camera is forced to follow her showing that she is in control and the audience are made to abide by this by camera movement, storming into the manager’s office shows that she has little boundaries. On the other hand we cut to the other main character ‘Thelma’ who can at first glance be seen as a typical housewife, clearing the table after breakfast wearing a dressing down. She has a softer voice and looks uncomfortable in her own home. The telephone wire is iconic to how the women’s freedom differs and how far they are willing to push their lives. Louise is free to move around and speak as loud as she wants but Thelma is tied to how long she is willing to go, the use of her twisting the wire also shows the audience a sense of entrapment and trying to break free.

The ways men are used in the clip also show how women are represented as both women respond differently to the presence of a man. Thelma is obviously scared of her husband, shown by her levels used and how she approaches and looks at him. She has closed body features and has no eye contact used towards him and uses a low volume tone, her dialog also shows that she is trying to keep him happy by asking him ‘housewife’ question for example, ‘Want anything special for tonight Hun?’ but also is scared for a response (the cut away scene of the husband leaving for work shows the audience the stereotypical authoritative man, the hand held camera throughout that scene could connote and also adds emphasis to the unstableness of the relationship.. Louise is in complete contrast to Thelma, she is firstly more authoritative towards her boss as a physical appearance towering over him when she snatches the phone out of his hand. This shows that she is in control and even the male know this as he is ushered away from the phone. Her vocal dialog and pitch also shows she is in control as she is louder and has a lower pitch, the close up and high angled shot also shows she is something unique as women are not usually framed in this way.