In the film "Thelma & Louise," Thelma remarks that ôlaw is some tricky shit, isn't it?ö Thelma's remark comes at the end of a discussion between her and Louise about the advisability of telling the police that Louise has just killed a man who was raping Thelma. Louise decides against going to the police, believing they could not get a fair hearing. Thus, the women set out on a journey that will make them outlaws and eventually cost them their lives. Gender issues, therefore, are significant throughout the movies. In fact, through the use of these issues, the film critiques the law as a means by which men, as a class, maintain power over women.
In essence, Marxism argues that the world is divided into two classes: the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. The proletariat is the working class, those who labor in the factories but who are alienated from the products of their labor. The bourgeoisie, on the other hand, own the means of production and have the financial and social power to control society's rules. The bourgeoisie use this power to ensure their continued control and continued economic profits (Harman 7-9). One way the bourgeoisie maintains this control is by creating and maintaining social rules that exclude or disempower those who are not of its class.
Marx also focused on class divisions in his argument about women's oppression. Essentially, he contended that women's oppression arises from the development of a working class of women who had a potential power they never had before: the ability to organize, act independently, and if necessary, fight for their rights (Harman 79-81). Thus, women were no longer completely dependent on men (husbands and fathers) for their livelihoods (Harman 79-81). But the law, which still remained firmly in the hands of men, was one way for men to ensure their continued control. There can be no question that men have historically controlled both the private and publ
...