Rhetorical Genders: Performances of a Lifetime in Thelma and Louise If the 1991 box office success of Thelma and Louise was unexpected, more surprising was the heated debate that followed its release, a debate over the film’s political status and social implications. While Joan Smith of The Guardian argued that the film’s “effect is perversely to reinforce the message that women cannot win,” Janet Maslin of the New York Times called the film “transcendent in every way.” Where Kathi Maio of Ms saw “powerful images of women who dare to feel anger against male violence and domination,” John