Thelma and Louise challenge the common view of law and protection because the movie perfectly portrays how women would not be believed when telling an alleged story of attempted rape or anything. According to their beliefs, the law tends to question male behaviors, but it never sets any doubts when it comes to women committing crimes (Russell, 2002). When Thelma says that the law “is some tricky shit,” she means exactly that the lack of diversity in addressing crimes based on the offender’s gender is what makes it so hard to distinguish between what can be legally punished and what can only be thought of as a crime.
The recognition that Thelma and Louise get when they become the ones who occupy the traditionally male roles is what might make the audience think about the irrational approach of the community to numerous issues that have been considered gender-based at all times. The argument here is that when Thelma kills the man who tried to rape her, she does not believe that someone could actually see her as a person doing it in self-defense.
Another important concept that can be mentioned when dwelling on Thelma and Louise is that a bad citizen and a bad woman might not actually be synonymous based on what has been shown in the film. The main reason for praising the difference between the two is the long-standing nature of gender-related stereotypes where women are often portrayed as submissive and not having the right to vote or choose when it comes to a complex situation (Kotsopoulos, 2003).
The supposed impenetrability is what sets the main characters of the movie apart from any other women, as they remove the restraints established by society and choose to stand up for themselves, even it is going to cost them their lives or freedoms. Thelma and Louise depict certain male values such as decisiveness, for example, while remaining women, which is much more important than behaving as typical females at all times. This might also link Thelma and Louise to the main character in Thappad, for instance, where the wife also chose to overcome the long-standing gendered roles in order to pursue her peace of mind.
The fact that Thelma and Louise constantly re-dress hints at the fact that they are going through the process of constant change and cannot avert themselves from the crucial alterations that they have to go through in order to overcome the stereotypical societal thinking. Thelma and Louise is a great example of genre convention because it redefines the orthodox roles eventually played in movies by male characters and takes them to a new level.
As soon as Thelma takes the gun away from her husband, she seems to diminish his control over her, as the husband does not have anything to threaten her with, making it easier for her to escape his constant abuse and disrespect (Wiegand, 1997). The turning point in the film occurs when the women decide to drive into the Grand Canyon and die instead of being captured. Thelma and Louise ultimately liberate themselves and take on the privilege of choice that was unavailable to them at the beginning of the movie.
One of the reasons why Thelma and Louise could be seen as a male-bashing film is the fact that women are dissatisfied with their personal lives, and certain men tend to externalize their disappointment and attack other males in order to respond to how they were treated by their partners. On the other hand, men portrayed in the film (except for the detective) never tried to get in the shoes of the main characters and only viewed them as criminals, which is another venue of unfair treatment. The current movie can be interpreted as a gradual process of emancipation that is accompanied by the transformation of gender-specific roles previously proposed by society.
References
Kotsopoulos, A. (2003). Gendering expectations: Genre and allegory in readings of Thelma and Louise. Left History: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Historical Inquiry and Debate, 8(2).
Russell, D. (2002). “I’m not gonna hurt you”: Legal penetrations in Thelma and Louise. Americana: The Journal of American Popular Culture, 1900 to Present, 1(1).
Wiegand, S. A. (1997). Deception and artifice: Thelma, Louise, and the legal hermeneutic. Oklahoma City UL Review, 22, 25.