Why We’re Basically Thelma & Louise | Ride-or-Die Female Friendships

Why We’re Basically Thelma & Louise | Ride-or-Die Female Friendships 

At some point in every strong female friendship, there’s a moment where you realize: 

“If society collapses… this is the woman I’m getting in the car with.”

In this hilarious, nostalgic, and unexpectedly emotional episode of Slightly Unsupervised, Jennifer and Jackie explain why their friendship has serious Thelma & Louise energy — minus the driving off the cliff part.
 
From ditching school and surviving questionable 80s adventures to navigating adulthood, burnout, motherhood, responsibility, and emotional exhaustion, they unpack why ride-or-die female friendships become so important as women get older.
 
They talk about:
 

•  Why women need female friendships to survive emotionally 
•  The difference between “fun friends” and true ride-or-die friendships 
•  How women lose themselves in responsibility 
•  Why girls' trips feel emotionally healing 
•  The chaos, freedom, and loyalty behind lifelong friendships 
•  Why women need spaces where they can stop performing and just be themselves 

Jennifer and Jackie also share some completely unhinged stories from their younger years involving spinning cars, trunks, mountain roads, and the kind of questionable decisions that somehow only make friendships stronger.
 
Because sometimes the greatest love story in a woman’s life isn’t romantic at all…
 it’s the friend who looked at your chaos and said:
 

“Get in. I’ve got you.”

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This episode of Slightly Unsupervised was brought to you by the creators of Bestiemony®—the original friendship ceremony that proves soulmates don’t always come with a marriage license. Hosted by Jennifer and Jackie: best friends, business partners, and co-founders of the movement celebrating real, ride-or-die love.

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Transcript

Jennifer 0:00

Hey there, I'm Jennifer. And I'm Jackie. And welcome to Slightly Unsupervised. We're best friends, business partners, and the chaos behind bestimony, a ceremony we created to celebrate the kind of soulmates who don't come with a marriage license.

Jackie 0:10

This podcast is all about that friendship energy. The deep stuff, the messy stuff, and the laugh till you snort stuff.

Jennifer 0:15

So whether you're driving, folding laundry, or hiding in your car for some peace and quiet, you're in good company.

Jackie 0:19

Let's get slightly unsupervised. Today we are talking about why we're basically Thelma and Louise. At some point in every strong female friendship, there's a moment where you realize if society collapses, this is the woman I'm getting in the car with. Today's episode might be the most accurate comparison we've ever made about ourselves because honestly, our friendship has strong Thelma and Louise energy. Not the driving up the cliff part, let's be clear. But the loyalty, the ride or die energy, the emotional survival, the laughter and chaos, the I'll help you hide the body emotionally kind of my friendship, that kind. Because some friendships are casual and some friendships feel like two women surviving life together. Yeah.

Jennifer 0:58

We are. And and let's be clear on the Thelma Louise. And if you haven't seen it, we just had another episode about my having sisters. My sister probably would not know Thelma Louise because it's a different generation. But if you are best friends and you don't know who Thelma and Louise is, I highly recommend you watch the movie because it's actually the movie that made Brad Pitt Brad Pitt. And made it's really yeah, it's really just a really fun. We have so little in the best friend world to go to go back to. So the movies become very like iconic about best friends or whatever. It's always like a love of love affair of, you know, a man or a woman or whatever. Never really about best friends. And I think this one really highlights the best friend, the best friend friendship, and about what happens when two women get together. The movie definitely represents a lot of female freedom, you know. They were sort of in relationships and especially the one, um, and she was bogged down by a relationship that she was in. So for her, it was like the first just some freedom that she had that was imperative. And then uh an emotional escape again. A couple of girls together, they're gonna dump on each other emotionally, but in a good way, because that is what we do. Loyalty, good god. You want to hear about loyalty? Go watch Thelma and Louise, because those girls got themselves into some serious, serious trouble. And they could have turned on each other, but they held to they stayed together throughout it all. That's what I remember about that movie. Um, and then finally just feeling understood that particularly I think they came out of that as totally different women. I don't want to give away the storyline, but they changed throughout that movie and what that how that trans kind of happened and how important that was. So I think um Thelma Louise weren't looking to run away from life. It was about running to each other, to themselves, and how they change. So again, if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. If you have seen it, then you know what we're talking about. So, Jackie, you kind of have thelma energy.

Jackie 3:02

Tell us about what it is that you have, what thelma energy is kind of like emotional, spontaneous, oppressive, impulsive, hard first, accidentally creates adventure. Yeah, definitely accidentally. This seemed like a good idea at the time. Yeah, that's that's yeah, and then all of a sudden it's trouble. Yeah, exactly. We probably shouldn't have done that.

Jennifer 3:22

Yeah, exactly. Accidentally creates adventures. How many times has that happened in our lives? We go out for something in it, so it ends up in a big old adventure sidelines itself. So yeah, Jackie definitely is more of a thou in energy. And then there's Luis. So the energy for Luis is something that we agree is more my energy, grounded, observant, protective, practical, emotionally controlled until she's not. And then one the one who's calculating consequences while still getting in the car, probably with me who's who said this is gonna be okay.

Jackie 3:56

We're gonna do this, it's gonna be so much fun.

Jennifer 3:59

Like, are you sure? Is that should we be doing that? I don't know. I mean, we could get in trouble here. It's all gonna be so much fun. Don't worry about it. You're gonna have the best time ever. I wouldn't even worry about it. Jackie's great. Jackie's a sales girl at heart. She will sell you.

Jackie 4:14

It's gonna be the best time ever. We can do this. Yes, no problem.

Jennifer 4:19

And even when we're little, not little, but younger, be like, oh, I don't know. And you'd be like, no, no, no, it's gonna be great, it's gonna be great. Don't worry about it, don't worry about it. You'd be like, okay, like just go along with you because you're like so convinced that it's gonna be okay.

Jackie 4:30

We're going to the beach, we're ditching school, it's gonna be fine. It's okay. My my engine just froze. I'm gonna get somebody to tow my truck all the way back up to the mountains. We're gonna turn it like we were coming home from school. Everything's gonna be fine. And did it all work out? It did. It did. Nobody did work out. Our parents never found out.

Jennifer 4:49

Somehow we escaped getting in trouble. Probably like some in the Ways did too. But somehow we would get ourselves in some serious situations, y'all, and we would somehow get out of them. We'd get on with our. There was a time, talking. I was just thinking about this. There was a time we took my mom's little CRX. My mom had a CRX and back in the 80s, it was a really cute little like sports car, right? And we wait, we must have had like 10 people in that thing. Do you remember this? And we were going down, was it Cuffle Canyon? There was somebody driving it, it wasn't us, and the glass control and started spinning. Do you remember that? Going down, was it Cuffle Canyon Canyon? Do you remember that? Daily Canyon. Daily Canyon. That was Daily Canyon. Somehow, y'all, that car gained control of itself and we continued down the street. Like we were in a we were spinning. We were going down that thing.

Jackie 5:34

Who was driving like Chris or something?

Jennifer 5:36

I don't remember. I don't remember who was driving. I know. But somehow we and this is like an amount. This isn't like just like a regular road. We're talking about cliffs and drop-offs and things.

Jackie 5:53

Wasn't it? It was bad weather.

Jennifer 5:55

It was bad weather big, yeah.

Jackie 5:56

Yeah, that's where a lot of people spin out on that road.

Jennifer 5:59

Yeah.

Jackie 5:59

Buses, cars, yeah. And bad.

Jennifer 6:02

You probably just get slick or something, and your car just loses. Dumb out. We flipped around. Off we went. Continued on our day. Very lucky.

Jackie 6:09

We're so lucky.

Jennifer 6:10

I know. What about the time we got in people's back? Do you remember getting in those guys' trunk? I think I blocked that one out. You and I got in someone's trunk. I don't remember. And they were driving around the Jensen's parking lot, like going backwards.

Jackie 6:25

Oh, I think I do remember that now a little bit.

Jennifer 6:30

Why were we in the trunk? Number one. And two, they were like 100 miles an hour in that parking lot going backwards, like 10 years old.

Jackie 6:39

I told you it would be okay. It would be alright.

Jennifer 6:42

Praise Jesus, because it was, but dear lord, what were we doing in the back? You don't know how many times we're going to do that. Yeah. We escaped life so much. So, you know, that's this isn't Thel and Louise energy. We somehow get ourselves into things and somehow we got out of it. But Thelma Louise did too until they didn't. So watch the movie, y'all.

Song 7:00

So watch the movie.

Jennifer 7:01

So why women need ride or die friendships? Um, you know, someone understands them, someone can see the exhaustion and gets it, and someone who's, you know, says, get in, we're going somewhere. Let's get out of here. Let's get beyond this. So I think they remind you that you're still alive when you're underneath a bug of a responsibility. That's for sure what happens to women. Women get bogged down with that stuff. You know, I think you can definitely I think any woman's retreat with women can remind you that we're all really buried under enough responsibility that we're no longer having the best time of our lives. So sometimes when you get back together with women, and I think this happened with Dom and Louise as well, is that they got back to feeling like they were individuals. Doesn't that happen a lot with women where you feel like you're part of a family but you're the head of the you know what I mean? Like you're not enjoying it.

Jackie 7:51

I could I could have used a little road trip probably beginning of March.

Jennifer 7:55

Yeah. Just to feel like connected and women.

Jackie 7:59

Yeah, I could have used one.

Jennifer 8:01

Yeah. I think that's why women love to have as many girls' trips as they can. I mean, it's really kind of like it's a tough one.

Jackie 8:08

So this is this is our friendship's fault because we didn't have enough girl trips. We need like we haven't been doing our girls' trips. So you guys we need to do more girls' trips. Jackie needs them.

Jennifer 8:19

Yeah. You gotta get out and have some time to be silly in your own friend, and just feel safe in that too. So definitely promote the women getting together with women. And yeah, maybe you don't need to be thumb on Louise kind of energy, but you definitely can get a little wild though.

Jackie 8:37

Needs a little wildness for your friends.

Jennifer 8:39

Just just be wild. And your friends are like, what are you doing? All right, let's see what's going on.

Jackie 8:44

Instead of having to be the responsible one taking care of everything and everything exactly out there.

Jennifer 8:49

So they are they're a good they're a good set of women. They're a good example of best friends, and it's uh it's a popular movie, and if you haven't seen it, go see it. Uh-huh. It's something. Okay, Jack, let's go into our bestie rapid questions. Um, all right, Jackie. What is which one of us would get arrested first?

Jackie 9:07

Me. I already have.

Jennifer 9:09

She did. And I haven't.

Jackie 9:11

Yes. I was much younger, let's talk. Before children, before family.

Jennifer 9:15

Yes, but she has the badge of having been arrested before.

Jackie 9:18

Yes, they have to talk about that. So we were with a group of people who were going to a winery. And and some have been like one of one of our girlfriends in our hand were were with us, and this we were all took Ubers over to the winery from where we were staying. And then there's three other girls with us that they've been my friends for uh at least two decades now. But we were all sitting there and someone said we were doing questions and stuff, and one's like, Yeah. So out of all of us, who thinks that one of us would have would be the first to go to jail, would you know, be arrested? Right. And they all point at me. Yeah, I understand my one girlfriend because she knows I had. But this other group did not know, and I was like, Well, what makes you guys think of me? Yeah, exactly. And I had to say, Okay, I have. But she's like, where did that come from?

Jennifer 10:04

So I must give that kind of aura out. I don't know. The qualities of somebody who could go to jail. So I don't know.

Jackie 10:11

Which one would cry first? That would be you. I think both of those both at times, but I think you cry more first on some things. Like what like the weddings and stuff, you seem to cry more than I do on that. And like the bestimonies, you cry first.

Jennifer 10:25

Oh my god, I always cry on those. Yeah, yeah. But uh, I more emotionally I get more emotionally invested in things than probably you do. So you're probably right. That's probably true. Okay, who would accidentally make things worse? Me. Yeah, probably. I could I could probably put my hand into that one too, though, a little bit.

Jackie 10:43

I think it might matter. I don't have a poker face, and so I can kind of like my face can make things worse.

Jennifer 10:50

It can. You're passive aggressive. I'm more like yeah, I'm more direct. I'll just make you feel uncomfortable. Like I could say something, people be like, What did you just say? And I'm like, Well, it's the truth, so let's just move on from it. People are like, oh my god, I can't believe it. So I think both of us could make things feel pretty worse, actually.

Jackie 11:09

All right, you're next. Who's more likely to say, let's just do it? Probably me. Yeah. Me.

Jennifer 11:14

Yeah. It depends what it is, I think.

Jackie 11:17

But yeah, true.

Jennifer 11:18

Yeah. It just depends.

Jackie 11:20

Like, there's some things I Well yeah, because kind of like business, it's you.

Jennifer 11:23

Yeah.

Jackie 11:24

If it's just fun stuff, it's me.

Jennifer 11:26

Yeah. We're gonna go raise hell, it's Jackie. So okay. If we look at if we took a spontaneous road trip tomorrow, where would we end up?

Jackie 11:34

Spontaneous road trip tomorrow. If I put it together with all of our girls anywhere.

Jennifer 11:39

Yeah.

Jackie 11:39

If we could just go and uh it's our hand, our our best five best friends with all of us together anywhere.

Jennifer 11:44

Yeah, we could go anywhere, really.

Jackie 11:46

Yep, as long as we're all together.

Jennifer 11:47

We want you girls to come someday and let's go to Savannah. I think Savannah's a cool place. It'd be fun for us girls to go there. It's my Savannah.

Jackie 11:55

And we could dress up in our little dresses like they all and our hats and everything. Don't they all dress up like oh Charleston? Yeah.

Jennifer 12:02

Charleston and Savannah are in the same state. They're a little bit further. Yeah, no. Southerners like to wear their dresses.

Jackie 12:10

Yeah, we can get all dressed up.

Jennifer 12:13

Not me. I wear my jeans. All right, you're next, Jack. And your flip-flops. And my flip-flops, and I'm going anywhere with teasing flip-flops.

Jackie 12:20

Let's see, what makes a friendship feel emotionally safe? Loyalty. We've already got that question every time we've already done everything. Yeah. Okay, why do you go ahead and why do women need adventure with other women?

Jennifer 12:31

Release the stress. So let somebody remind them you don't have to put it all together. You're not managing this family tip right now. We're just having some fun. And you don't have to bring that weight with you. You can leave that behind. And for once, if you've had it, and then you got the responsibility to go back and to have a few moments where you don't have that responsibility and you just be yourself. It's got it's it's a beautiful thing. Like many women, I we do bestimonies, we know that they come to our chapel, and they're generally women on vacation. I really haven't had any locals, I don't think, do it. So they're people that are specifically there to do that and to be on vacation with a girls' trip. And those girls are just having a good time. They're just being free and they've left their families behind, and we're not talking about that. We're talking about me and what's good for me. Like all of that. Because women really can get logged down in their lives and forget that they're actually fun humans, right? I think that's what you forget as a mother. You forget that you could just be fun and spontaneous and kids think you're all serious, and you're like, you know, at some point in life I was pretty wild. Yeah. Yeah. I knew how to have fun. I did. They're like, no, you didn't. Yeah, like, yeah, I did. Yeah.

Jackie 13:41

Good thing there was no no phones back then.

Jennifer 13:44

I know. No recording of it. Okay, Jackie, what's one moment where our friendship felt right or die?

Jackie 13:49

Okay. Now, I was thinking of like things we did, like coming up the mountain driving, but then I'm like, I don't know if that's what they mean. I don't think that's what they mean. I think it was when you when I came to live with you when you had a child. I mean, I was gonna be there for you. I don't I don't know many people who would want when they're their first time moving out of the house should be some chick with her baby.

Song 14:09

Yeah, exactly.

Jackie 14:10

But I was like, I'm gonna be with you, I'm gonna help you with this. Like, I'm not gonna ditch you and you're not gonna, you know, have to live with your mother and deal with that situation. Like, let's get out, let's do this, right?

Jennifer 14:21

And you and remember you lived a small time with me even before we moved out, only before we moved down there too. There was a place after high school where you lived with me too. So Yeah, we were together. So yeah, for sure. That's I'll always say it, you know. I've said it many times, but I know it's repetitive, but you know, my friends showed up. So for me that that will always feel like a ride or die. And just just for me on the same question, you know, is just always like like a I started my big business or whatever, Jackie jumped in and tries to help, you know. Like for me that's like that's such a powerful thing to have somebody who be like, Well, I can help. Let me do this or whatever. So Jackie and I have been doing, you know, working on my stuff together too, just from a work standpoint. And it's like, you know, I know one time I'm like, Jackie, I need you to come. I need a photographer for a weekend, and I need you to be here. And she did. She jumped on a plane and she came and she was the photographer that weekend for me because I needed one.

Jackie 15:19

And keep in mind I hadn't done it in over a decade.

Jennifer 15:22

I did it pretty good. You did. Yeah. Well, Jackie used to be a photographer, so that's why I asked her. And she did. She did a great job. So, anyways, okay, Jack, you're next.

Jackie 15:32

Okay. Do you think women save each other emotionally? Yeah. Yeah.

Jennifer 15:36

I don't think a guy saves a woman emotionally. I don't even know if he knows what to say. Because you have to understand how you think in order to really help. Like, that's why they're not.

Jackie 15:43

Yeah, believing. I could use some points of some things my husband said this last weekend. Luckily, my daughter was there to hear. I'm like, Did can you believe he just said that? Like, really think before you say something. And he was trying to be nice, but it just did not come out right or at the right time. It was just like, do you know what? I will no, dude, you already said it.

Jennifer 16:04

Right. Or we're gonna be like, it's not a good time right now to bring that up. You know what I mean?

Jackie 16:09

Like, yeah, I was just like, no, that was just wrong. Any of my pills this week, you're gonna be in deep shit.

Jennifer 16:15

You're in deep trouble, buddy. Okay, last one, Jackie. Why do friendships become more important as women age? Why do friendships become more important?

Jackie 16:22

Because we need you. We need each other.

Jennifer 16:24

There's less, there's less busyness in our family. There's best less busyness, like from a standpoint of like we've raised our families, things have gone on, da da da. We have our husbands, we're situated in that. It like the women just become more more important as we get older because you realize that you're gonna need your companionship again and you're gonna you're gonna lean back on your friends.

Jackie 16:43

I mean, that's just yeah, I just I just need you guys to talk to for my sanity too. Just not just talk to my children and just be being there for them all the time. Like, I need someone there for me. Right. Because these kids, I mean, even though they love me too, I can't call and talk to them about my situation.

Jennifer 16:58

Anything I think you're perfect, so you can't do that. Like, you know, you need somebody gonna be just be honest with, be like, invent about them. Yeah, right.

Jackie 17:08

Sorry, but it's true. It's so true. The way they talk to us now and the things we have to deal with is like we need to call them.

Jennifer 17:15

I called Jackie and talked to her about that little piece of shit. Like, why would they say that?

Jackie 17:18

Or just a text, like can you believe this?

Jennifer 17:23

I know, right? Yeah, it's happening a lot in this world, my friends. We are at a generational changes of what one generation does in the other. Okay, I think that in women really loved about them and Louise wasn't the rebellion, it was the recognition. The recognition that women are tired, tired of carrying everything, tired of being responsible for everyone, and tired of shrinking themselves to survive life. And then suddenly there's two women who finally feel free when they're together. And that's what real friendship does. It gives you a place where you don't have to perform, you don't have to explain yourself, and you don't have to hold everything together all the time. You can just be human. And honestly, every woman deserves at least one friendship where she thinks that she's safe and alive and understood. Because sometimes the greatest love story in a woman's life isn't romantic. It's sometimes it's women who looked at your chaos, grabbed your hand, and said, Get it, I've got you. Or definitely that, for sure. Okay. If this episode hit you in the fields or made you laugh way too hard, we consider that a win.

Jackie 18:20

Be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with your ride or die.

Jennifer 18:23

And when you're ready to make your friendship official, book your bestimony at rhinestoneweddingchapel.com.

Jackie 18:29

Because the best love stories don't always come with a ring.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

Reuniting's like we've never been apart, and every single time we had an iron heart to heart.

Song 19:16

We made a big but it's enough to make it bad.