Thelma and Louise: Defying the Social Construction of Gender

The 1991 film Thelma and Louise depicts a dramatic chain of events in the lives of two women. The experiences the two principal characters endure are deeply indicative of the social roles that have been assigned to them on the basis of their gender identity. While the film depicts a fictional narrative, the story of Thelma and Louise provides a fascinating dramatization of how wider social forces rooted in patriarchy impact the personal lives and social existence of women. The film further provides an artistic presentation of the social construction of gender as presented in Simone de Beauvoir’s work The Second Sex.

Beauvoir was a pioneer feminist in the middle part of the twentieth century, and her work provided powerful insights into the social nature of gender roles. She was one of the early writers to voice the view that gender is largely socially constructed. According to Beauvoir, socially exhibited characteristics of females that are assumed to be “natural” are in fact rooted in the social roles that are assigned to women by men. This system of male domination is maintained in part by falsely characterizing the observed behaviors of women within the context of patriarchy as reflecting the essence of the female personality.

In the film, the characters Thelma and Louise act in defiance of these assigned gender roles in a variety of ways. The film begins by demonstrating the contrasts between the two women. Thelma, played by Geena Davis, is depicted as a representation of a woman who conforms to and is constrained by gender role expectations. Thelma is a young housewife married to a domineering and abusive man, and she is afraid to act independently of his wishes. However, the character Louise, portrayed by Susan Sarandon, is shown to be an independent and assertive woman who defies conventional gender role stereotypes. For instance, in her relationship with her boyfriend, she is largely independent and maintains control over her own life to a much greater degree.

As the two women begin a routine vacation together as friends, their journey takes a series of tragic turns. When they stop at a bar for drinks, the contrasts between the two women is demonstrated once again. Louise is enthusiastic about venturing into the bar, while Thelma is more apprehensive. But while in the bar, Thelma develops a flirtatious encounter with a male patron. Later in the evening, the man attempts to rape Thelma. His attempted crime is thwarted when Louise appears with a firearm and intervenes. After the rape in prevented, the man gratuitously insults the women, and Louise kills him. As a result, Thelma and Louise become murder suspects. Thelma is once again depicted as the more conforming of the two characters, as she wishes to go to the police and explain the context in which the killing of the man occurred. Louise is opposed to this idea, thinking no one will believe their story. The two women then decide to flee to Mexico, and Louise contacts her boyfriend, and tells him to send her all of her money so she and Thelma can make their escape.

Yet another illustration of the contrasts between the characters of Thelma and Louise occurs during their subsequent encounters with men. Louise’s boyfriend appears, and he wishes to know why she is behaving so strangely. He then asks her to marry him. Louise once again demonstrates her independence, refuses to answer his questions, and declines his marriage proposal. Thelma, on the other hand, enjoys a sexual encounter with a man she had met while traveling with Louise, only to find that the man has robbed the two women of all their money.

An important aspect of the plot is the transformation Thelma exhibits during her time as a fleeing fugitive with Louise. Initially, Louise is shown to be by far the most independently minded and self-assertive of the two women. During the course of their flight to Mexico, Louise states her refusal to travel through the state of Texas in order to get to their destination. While Louise also refuses to say why she wishes to avoid Texas, the implication is that something traumatic has previously happened to her there. The detective who is investigating Thelma and Louise for the killing of the man at the bar seems sympathetic to Louise’s situation. While the film never reveals what happened to Louise in Texas, the implication is that she was a rape victim herself. A further implication is that her independence of mind and spirit is part of the process of overcoming her own previous victimization.

However, after the two women are robbed of all their money, Louise is devastated and becomes barely functional. It is at this point that the transformation of Thelma really begins. The man who had robbed Thelma and Louise was also a professional hold-up man who had revealed his methods to Thelma during his time with her. Thelma then employs his same tactics to successfully rob a convenience store. This action, combined with her status as a fugitive, proves to be a liberating experience for Thelma, and she decides she prefers life on the run to the submissive role she endured during her marriage to her husband. The growing assertiveness of the two women is further demonstrated when they fire gunshots at a fuel tank truck whose driver had been sexually harassing them, thereby causing the truck to explode.

Unfortunately for Thelma and Louise, their refusing to turn themselves in for the killing of the man at the bar, and the crimes they have committed while on the run, have led to an intensification of the police’s search for them. The film ends with Thelma and Louise being cornered in their car on the edge of a cliff after a dramatic high-speed police chase. The two women then resolve to die together rather than surrender, and they drive the car off the cliff. This final act by Thelma and Louise represents their preference to accept death rather than to endure the fate that has befallen them, and in no small part because of the consequences of patriarchy and gender role expectations in their own lives.

Works Cited

Beauvoir, Simone de. The Second Sex. Translated by Constance Borde and SheilaMalovany-Chevallier. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. Print.

Thelma and Louise. Directed by Ridley Scott. Performers: Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis.Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1991. Film.