Thelma and Louise Ride Again

May 24, 2016 — cult film, domestic violence, feminist, Thelma and Louise

Thelma and Louise presented a new way to look at feminism.  The film became an iconic historical snapshot of the time in history.  The actresses, who are still singularly beautiful and charismatic, predict that had they survived they would be surfers.  I love this idea of the two as champion surfers who own a surf club and bar in Mexico.   Now that all the Thelma and Louise references have been about the doom of desperation I think it is funny to picture them as ex pat entrepreneurs.  I wonder what an updated version would be.  It would be phones rather than Polaroids, but they would still have a T-bird.

The subject of domestic abuse and violence against women was taboo, barely mentioned in the mainstream, when this film was first released.  The influence of the movie was a catalyst for more public awareness of this dark reality in America.  The movie was popular at the time, but over time it has become a cult favorite.  The Hollywood landscape is still a challenge for women.  The pay equity discussion is still happening in every walk of life.  We have changed our ability to be informed, but I am not sure we have enlightened ourselves. The statistics on domestic violence are always stilted because it is not all reported.  That is one of the complexities of the issue. Using data from the reported cases we know that 3 women a day (on average) are murdered by domestic violence and a woman in America is beaten every 9 seconds. This situation needs our attention:

domestic violence fact