THE GAZE IS OFTEN LINKED TO POWER AND GENDER IN VISUAL CULTU

The scene takes place in a dimly lit car park, with the tacky neon lights of the club reflecting off the bonnets of the cars and flashing at the top of the screen. The country and western music is playing in the background off camera, which gives the spectator dirty tacky suspicion that is later confirmed by the later events.

Thelma may be wearing an off the shoulder top but her face and body do not encourage a voyeuristic male gaze. An unnatural light falls on her face in an unflattering way that emphasises how her make up has run down her face. In addition, the fact that she has just been sick, is sweating, and does not look her most attractive make the audience uncomfortable. Thelma’s attacker cuts in front of the camera, creating a physical barrier between the audience and Thelma, which gives this great sense of helplessness to the whole scene.

The quick cutting, interrupted with close up shots of Geena Davis’s jerky body movements removes any eroticism from the scene (in comparison to the rape scene in Clockwork Orange where the m

Another problem presented is the actual plot of the film. ‘Thelma and Louise’ is about two repressed women. The men in their lives control them, Thelma by her sleazy violent husband and Louise by her ties to her boyfriend and her suggested rape in Texas. Later in the film, both women are hunted by the male police officers. However, in the end of the film they break free of these restraints.

There is a huge feeling of claustrophobia in the scene especially when the rapist pins Thelma to the bonnet of the car by holding her arms behind her. There is a quick cut to a low angle shot of Thelma trying to keep her legs closed while the attacker forces the open. This gives the audience a great feeling of helplessness that is intensified by the quick cuts to where she is being pinned down.

Another point of view that supports Mulveys theory is the idea of the female sacrifice in horror films. Judith Halberstam supports the idea of the voyeuristic male gaze on the female victim. ‘The horror film provides a showcase for masculine aggression and provokes a sexual response to the spectacle of female mutilation…. Surveys suggest that young males make up the primary group that watches horror films.’.

Mulvey pushes the idea that women can only be powerful in film if they are either as a sexual object (‘the whore’) or the mother figure (‘the Madonna’). ‘Thelma and Louise’ creates a new form of powerful woman. This is most obvious in the final scene, both women have no make up and a baseball cap and cowboy hat cover their eyes. They are devoid of all feminine qualities that would be normal in a Hollywood film. However, both women are empowered and when faced with the decision they make, they are more powerful than the police with guns (phallic objects) that surround them. Glenn Man (1993) agrees with the idea that Thelma and Louise empowers the female characters, ‘What the narration of Thelma and Louise attempts to do then is to inscribe both women as subjects and agents of the narrative, give authentic voice to their desires, and mute the discourses of the male characters’

Some topics in this essay:
Steve Neale, Laura Mulvey’s, Alison Butler, POV Thelma, Deidre Pribram, Judith Halberstam, Thelma Louise, Laura Mulvey, John Berger, Laura Mulveys, ‘thelma louise’, freudian theory, thelma louise, laura mulvey, original paper, ‘women’s cinema’, thelma’s attacker, rape scene, male gaze, voyeuristic male gaze, voyeuristic male, devoid feminine qualities, louise takes phallic,