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Thelma and Louise

Thelma and Louise betrays feminism most explicitly in the scene where both Thelma and Louise "ruminate" over the money stolen by J.D. "Feminism" is an ideological position that attempts to champion sexual equality in the general terms terms of the social, political, economic, etc. The film masquerades as a feminist piece very often, but this particular instance deftly exposes its intellectual dishonesty. Thelma is portrayed here as absolutely naive and conceited, assuming that her recent sexual encounter with J.D. stemmed purely from her attractiveness and not realizing the seriousness of the situation--she's like a child. Louise, on the other hand, who seems more experienced and capable of making sound judgments, is reduced to a blithering mess of sobbing helplessness. It's not the showing of fallible characters that marks the crudeness of the film's "feminism," but the fact that the heroines are completely and utterly idiotic and incapable of, essentially, competing with a young man. J.D outplays the two both physically and mentally, and there is no underlying reason to suppose that the women should even be given the freedom to do as they wish. According to this scene alone, one would rightfully assume that women are inferior to men and that they basically botch every chance they get to escape. Ignoring the arguably immoral aggressiveness displayed by the women (towards men) in later scenes, the film has very few real-world connection to the values of feminism as it is commonly understood.

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