Analyse the representation of women in Thelma and Louise.
In 1975 Laura Mulvey introduced the ‘male gaze’ theory, in
this theory she stated that in film and television women are objectified on
screen as a result of men being behind the camera. The camera lingers on
women’s curves or depicts them as being sexual; often the events that happen to
women, the reactions are what a man would think. In society women are stereotyped as being
housewives and a less respected class than the men. Thelma and Louise was directed
by Ridley Scott and released in 1991. This goes against Mulvey’s theory because
Scott doesn’t portray the women as fragile or sex objects instead he shows them
as strong, independent women. Thelma and Louise reinforce this ideology to an
extent however towards the end it contrasts it and flips the stereotype of women[U1] .
In the opening scene we see both Thelma and Louise’s current
life which appears firstly as stereotypical, especially Thelma. We see Louise first;
she works as a waitress in a local diner, because she is working and isn’t a
stay at home housewife we know that she is independent. She first tells a group
of boys not to smoke, proving that she is stern, however when we see her walk
around to the back of the diner, we see her with a cigarette in hand. Ironic
but also goes against the stereotype of women. This contrasts to when we see
Thelma, she is in a white gown[U2] ,
the typical housewife, making her husband coffee, doing everything that is
needed. However we discover that Thelma is passive when it comes to her husband
as he is controlling, crude and manipulative – doesn’t let her do anything and
even tells Thelma not to yell for him.
When we see Thelma getting ready to leave for the journey
she has her hair in curlers this implies that she could be old fashioned
because we associate curlers with the 50’s/60’s even though this film was set
in the 90’s, we also see her with all her clothes laid out across her room,
most of these are dresses, skirts and frilly skirts[U3] .
She has a large suitcase indicating she has a lot of clothes to take this
therefore implies to the audience that she is girly. Louise on the other hand
has he hair up which could imply that it’s formal but also that its quite
masculine in a way as it’s all up out of the way which could look like a short
hair cut compared to a girl if she had it long and flowing like Thelma[U4] .
Also unlike Thelma she isn’t seen in dresses, she tends to stick to dark jeans
and a plain white shirt; this can be related to being masculine because men can
be seen wearing the same outfit, it’s not a typical girly look. Louise goes
against the stereotype because she isn’t girly at all, she has a job so she
isn’t a housewife, she wears clothes that could be seen as unisex however
Thelma is the typical stereotype, she wears the long dresses, a passive
housewife and she has the long flowing hair[U5] .
On the way out the girls pass a truck spraying water but
they swerve and scream the truck presumably to avoid getting their hair wet
thus a stereotypical trait as they want to stay presentable[U6] .
Next we see Thelma and Louise stop in a bar for a refreshing drink. However
whilst in the cowboy bar Thelma lets her hair down and she gets drunk, she
begins to flirt with Harlan as he bought her a few drinks (to this response Louise
blows smoke into his face to try say how she isn’t interested in his offer) and
so begins to dance with him however she is naive about trusting someone she
hardly knows and agrees to follow him outside. Whilst Thelma is doing this
Louise is in the toilet; in this scene all the women are crowded around the
mirror fixing their hair or make up to check they look good again this
indicates to the audience that women care about the way they look[U7] .
Thelma is taken outside where she is sick, Harlan then slaps her, pushes her
onto the bonnet of the car and slides his hands up her legs where Thelma is
telling him to get off of her. He tries to rape her. This shows Thelma to be in
a vulnerable position and she keeps trying to push him off of her, she is
determined not to let him do it[U8] .
Louise comes out just in time with a gun pointed at Harlan’s head, this
represents power[U9] [U10] . She makes a stand for all women who have
been attacked by shooting him in the chest after he makes foul remarks about
the girls themselves. Louise is strong. As they flee the scene Thelma starts to
panic at the fact they’ll be in trouble and she isn’t sure what to think
however Louise knows what she needs to do right away, she is strong minded.
Whilst parked we see Thelma with a split lip and a bloody nose however she has
a hairbrush in hand sorting her hair out; this reinforces the fact that she
still needs her hair to be presentable[U11] .
Through the majority of the film we see Thelma and Louise on
the run, during this we see how their roles reverse. Thelma changes from being
a good housewife to being more free/ wild; when she meets JD we see her let go
of her old self. She becomes seductive towards JD and has sex with him. She
loses the skirts and dresses for jeans and shirts; this can be seen as more
masculine or represents how she has become stronger[U12] since the beginning. Louise reverses the
stereotypical relationship as her boyfriend, Jimmy, is begging Louise to marry
him and be with him however typically we would see the woman beg for the man to
stay with her. After her steamy session with JD Thelma leaves him alone in the
room with all her valuables and money to go meet Louise for breakfast, this
shows even though she may have changed she is still very naive[U13] and trusting because she has only just met
the boy and she trusts him with all her stuff. A bad mistake as when Louise
finds out and rushes to the room she finds he stole everything they had. To
this Louise shows her softer side and breaks down, she cries, she screams and
is angry at Thelma, she then becomes quiet and weaker than to what she has been
before. Thelma takes over Louise’s role and becomes stronger in order to
support Louise, throughout the film we see Louise driving her car however now
because Thelma has more power, as Louise is distraught over losing everything,
we see Thelma begin to drive and come up with the next step in the plan. Using
everything JD taught her on how to rob a store, she tries it herself. She uses
the tactics to take all the money and some supplies from a store they pass on
the road; as she runs to the car with the money she just jumps straight in, she
doesn’t open the door, and begins to drive off. Louise is shocked at what
Thelma has done as its nothing like her personality at the start of the film as
before she never even knew how to hold a gun[U14] .
A little bit later we see Thelma wearing a leather
jacket/denim jacket and high waisted jeans, this tells us how she has more
attitude now, more of a rough look than her girly dresses. Both she and Louise
wear this. Also Thelma goes from having her hair down long and flowing to it
being pinned up and messy much like Louise had it in the start of the film[U15] . As you go on you see how Thelma becomes
more like Louise and how Louise becomes more like Thelma. Also when the girls
get pulled over by a cop, Louise gets asked to go to talk to the officer and
she isn’t sure of what she is going to do although Thelma knows exactly what
she wants to do about it. Again she uses the gun. She again points it to the
officer and tells him to get out of the car, then she instructs Louise to shoot
the police radio then get the officer into the trunk of the car; by her doing
this we can see how she is more assertive and has more authority now[U16] , people listen to her.
At the end of the film we see the girls get surrounded by
the police/FBI, together they make a mutual decision to carry on what they’ve
been doing the whole time and decide not to stop having fun. Thelma describes
it as the most fun she’s ever had which tells us why her role changed
dramatically, because she let her hair down and was herself she wasn’t being
the wife her husband wanted her to be. Together they decide to drive off of the
Grand Canyon to avoid spending the rest of their lives in jail. This could be
seen as a brave, courageous thing to do and also that they’re strong willed and
stubborn[U17] .
Overall, to start with Thelma fits the typical stereotype
within society i.e. she is the typical housewife, pretty, wears gowns and
skirts, hair in curlers etc. Whereas Louise goes against this i.e. she has hair
tied up, high waisted jeans, shirts, jackets, smokes etc. However during the
middle of the film the roles reverse, Thelma becomes the stronger character who
knows what to do and Louise is the passive friend who is quiet. Then towards
the end they’re both seen as strong, independent strong willed women, this goes
against Mulvey’s theory as they are not depicted as sex objects and it also
goes against stereotypes as they are not both passive housewives (Thelma isn’t anymore).
Excellent detail Shelby, you have analysed both characters
in detail and given a clear comparison between the characters.
Comment 2: What could the colour
white imply about Thelma as a character?
The colour white implies that Thelma
is a pure character to begin with, she is seen as innocent because white is a
symbol of cleanliness. Also the colour white is often associated with good
characters therefore implying that Thelma is the good character out of the two,
she hasn’t done anything wrong yet – she is still seen as harmless.
Comment 3: What do her clothes say
about her?
Thelma’s clothes consist of skirts
and dresses; this shows that she is seen as a typical giry girl. She likes to
dress up in a presentable way; she cares about her appearance and wants to look
good. This differs to Louise as she is wearing trousers this then tells us that
Louise is the stronger character, she dresses more sternly.
Comment 8: Explain why Harlan feels
he can behave this way
Harlan feels he can act this way
because he is the dominant male, Thelma is seen to be as innocent and so he
thinks she will be an easy target. He believes of the way she was acting in the
bar, she was flirting with him and dancing suggestively around Harlan, he was
also buying her drinks so he feels he has to get something in return.
