nt response from the world of men, in this case represented by the police who come down on these two women with all the weight and power they can muster.
These generic considerations are at the heart of Thelma and Louise. In the beginning, the two women are trapped in an existence that has been defined for them by the male-dominated world. They are dominated by males in their own lives in different ways. Thelma is married to a selfish and brutal man who treats her like a slave by having her cater to his whims and needs. He treats her as if she were stupid, and he also acts as if making her his wife were a favor for which she should be eternally grateful. His behavior toward his wife is even worse when she is in trouble far from home, and his boorish nature is evident to the sympathetic police detective who wants to help the women even though he does not know them, while Thelma's husband is simply antagonistic to his wife's interests.
Louise is a freer soul, unmarried and apparently in control of her life in a way that Thelma is not. Yet, Louise as well has had her existence defined by males, notably her boss and the latest man in her personal life. As becomes clear in the course of the story, she was also traumatized by a rape many years before in Texas, which is why she is so afraid of traveling through that state now.
The impetus for the bonding that takes place between these two women, the sort of bonding important to the buddy film, is their challenge to the male
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