Thema and Louise
Thema and Louise provides the viewer with a very effective feminist critique. I believe that this critique is best presented in one of the last scenes of the film, the scene in which Thema and Louise are pulled over by the highway patrolman. The officer comes to Louise's window and at first she assumes a typical submissive female persona, she plays cute and dumb hoping that he will go easy on her. This doesn't work and she is taken back to his car, Thema follows, pistol in hand. This scene is an effective feminist critique because the women get when they want only when they act as their intelligent, tough, masculine selves. A complete role reversal occurs when the officer begins to weep and beg for mercy, he is now the submissive character. The scene ends when Thema and Louise strip him of parts of his masculinity, Thema trades her feminine sunglasses for his and they take his gun. To me, this scene is the definition of feminism, intelligence and independence versus submissiveness.