Thelma and Louise

The movie Thelma and Louise attempts to make a difference in the way that people think. It sets out to challenge a number of conventional attitudes toward women. Although it achieves some success in this area for women, it does not do a great deal to rebuff society's stereotypical images of men. For the most part, men are portrayed in a negative light and in this paper, I will explore where these negative images appear within the movie. Thelma's husband, Darryl is portrayed as a dirt-bag. He is intolerant, selfish, egotistic and domineering. In the beginning of the movie Thelma is shown leaving a meal in the microwave for her husband as she sets off with her friend Louise for a weekend holiday. This is the first of numerous occasions in which the movie seizes the opportunity to perpetuate negative images of men. This first image reinforces the view that men are incompetent at looking after themselves and if left alone, they would be unable to feed themselves. Darryl's negative image continues throughout the movie, he never realizes that his treatment of his wife contributes to her unhappiness and her subsequent rejection of him even though Thelma has talked to him about this. Darryl is shown as a distant and unfeeling creature that would rather watch his football game and laze around drinking beer than know the whereabouts of his mysteriously missing wife. He is the embodiment of the lazy, beer-guzzling slob of a husband of editorials and comic strips. Another example of his distance occurs when Thelma calls him shortly after Harlan's murder. She is trying to explain where she is but he misses the explanation because he is watching a football game. He does not express any love or tenderness, but simply orders Thelma to come home. Darryl believes that a woman's place is in the home, along side her husband, catering to his every whim. This also brings home Darryl's 'double- standard' attitude toward their marriage because the audience learns that Darryl was