I Disagree With All Of You
"Thelma & Louise's ideological agenda has caused exceptionally polarized debate. The film has been variously interpreted as feminist manifesto (the heroine are ordinary women, driven to extraordinary ends by male oppression) and as profoundly anti-feminist (the heroines are dangerous phallic caricatures of the very macho violence they're supposedly protesting). Some critics have discerned a lesbian subtest (that final soul kiss at the abyss); others interpret this as a meaningful negation of feminine friendship that flies in the face of patriarchal authority. (Greenberg, P.20)
Feminism in my opinion can mean equality between men and women.
I believe this part of the Greenberg article was particularly useful in interpreting the various opinions that some people may have about the movies and contrasting them with others. It is my opinion that this film is the zenith of what feminism should be. The women are able to successfully define their own future and decide what they want to do. Initially, the women do have some trouble getting their feminist road defined. For example, in the first part of the film, Thelma was playing the devoting wife, asking what her husband wants, fixing his watch when he demands it, and cooing in his ear with comforting messages of ego-boosting vocabulary. Thelma leaves that idiot and them succumbs to the flirting diner patron, whatever his name was. To many audiences, this may seem as though it were a betrayal of what feminism should be. I view it differently. Louise although she seems as though she were the more rational of the twins, does not present herself as free from her temptations to the attention of males. Her finance was a temptation that could have made her go back to a typical woman role of being subservient housewife however, she decided to do what she wanted to do, not what she thought would be the most appropriate.
I believe that this particular film does not betray what feminism is. Perhaps it is because I am Asian. I believe that the women chose what they wanted to do and made choices based on what they felt would be best for themselves, not others for a change. Thelma may seem like a cheap tramp who flirts and does dirty things. However, American society believes that a woman should be pure and clean whether women want to be or not. Thelma was simply going against what society was telling her to do. Louise was similar with the way she teaches the men around her that women have a right to stand up for themselves and have the power to make their own decisions. Women are humans, not robots who are make decisions based on how they feel and want. Women sometimes fall to temptations and get back on the right track. This film shows women treating people the way they treat others. It should be exceptionally motivating and interesting.
張惠妹