Feminist values seem to be portrayed throughout the film, such as the empowerment of women and raising of awareness of issues that some women must face in real life on a regular basis. Then the film also seems to imply that trying to run away from your problems doesn’t make them go away. Instead, they follow you wherever you go and sometimes get to be much worse in the process. Another issue that was portrayed in the film, Thelma & Louise, was regarding how Thelma and Louise did not want to go to the cops since they didn’t think their story would be believed. I think this is a reflection of the time period in which the movie took place. The women felt they were hopeless if they went to the police; fearing that their story would not be believable since witnesses would be able to account for the intimate dancing between the rapist and Thelma.
This film is still relevant today because women still have to be careful of men with bad intentions. The movie shows how reacting in an irrational manner can lead to fate. Louise shouldn’t have shot the man despite that he was raping Thelma and disrespecting the women verbally.
The most important point the movie makes is that women should never settle for anything. The women, as mentioned before, were not in favor of turning to the law. They should never settle for mediocrity, unhappiness, or oppression. Naturally, Thelma and Louise took the concept of “not settling” to an extreme, but it was necessary to show their liberation. Once they decided to never settle, they became truly happy and free.
They men in the film represented extremes. The rapist represented the bad qualities of a man- deceitful, disrespectful, corrupt, and inconsiderate. On the other hand, Harvey Keitel is lone half-decent man in the entire film who has respect for ladies. These portrays were fair because the men of this time area probably didn’t treat women with respect. I wouldn’t change anything about the male characters in this movie because I think it is an accurate portrayal of how women were treated during this time.
Overall, I did enjoy this movie. The movie characterized the women as sweet and innocent, yet the ending proved to be very extreme and radical. I liked the movie because it was eventful, which helped to keep me stay interested in the movie.
This article discusses different perspectives which represent different ideas for how the oppression of women is upheld. While many feminists regard the oppression of women as an inherent biological trait of men, Marxism explains that the root of women’s oppression lies not in biology, but in social conditions. I think oppression is not an inherent trait of men, but I do agree with the Marxism belief- oppression is based around social conditions.
Oppression can be overcome by not constraining a women to particular roles that are traditionally male dominated positions. For example, more women should be hired as managers, referees, chefs, tech experts, politics, etc.