Thelma and Louise

In this film Thelma and Louise are dressed very much as men when they are out on the open road with their baggy, dirty and ripped up t-shirts with tight torn jeans. This is going against the feminist stereotype of dresses and skirts. This signifies their aggression against men in a subtle way and signifies that they have no need in men. This is used as more of a serious point rather than for comedic purposes which is present in most films as "when men dress as women, it is humorous; while vice versa is sexy. In a patriarchal society, it makes sense that a woman would want to be a man, but why would a man want to be a woman?" (1)

When the truck driver is driving along side Thelma and Louise we get this POV shot from the truck driver looking down on the women, signifying the power the man would usually have. This could even  connote how women are lower than men in society and also literally. "...One might simplify this by saying; men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at." (2) So instead of apireing to be like them, its turned on its head so that they are trying to be indepedent as a sign they do not need men.

This film is one of the only that would pass the Bechdel test. For this test there must be two women in the film, must talk to eachother and about something other than a man or men. Twenty yeats ago Thelma and Louise passed this easily.

"I can think of only three widely distributed movies that passed in the last year: Something Borrowed, Bridesmaids, and The Help. None approached the depth or level of nuance ofThelma & Louise, and only The Help featured actresses of the same caliber as Davis and Sarandon." (3)


 This signifies that not all films have to be men orientated and that women are no less important than men and the conventions of femininity in this film support this. 
















(1) Mary Ann Doane in "Image and Representation by Nick Lacey
(2) Nick Lacey in "Image and Representation"
(3) Raina Lipsitz in 'Thelma & Louise': The Last Great Film About Women