silence in Set it Off
"When Ursula comes around, the other three women usually avert their eyes. Tisean, Stony, and Frankie's silence around Cleo's lesbianism are indicative of the workings of homophobia and silence in the African American community"
Kimberly Springer ,Waiting to set it off p. 197 CP
I agree with this response to the film. Silence doesn't connote acceptance, and Springer has touched on an interesting topic in the black community. Perhaps Cleo's gender performance as a man is a response to the silence around her lesbianism. If it is unacceptable to love a woman as a woman, than it may be an adaptive for Cleo to love Ursula while performing as a man. I think this is also seen in greater society. Homosexual relationships are often more easily accepted when they have some sort of male/female (femme/butch) gender performance. Heterosexual relationships are also more easily accepted in mainstream society when they conform to traditional modes of gender performance.
It is also interesting in the film how Ursula doesn't have a speaking role. She is in plenty of scenes, at least five. But the only sound we hear from her is when she's crying when Cleo is shot on T.V. Ursula's gender performance is obvious in the film by her contrast to Cleo, and without a single line it also seems clear where the femme's place is in this film, and on an abstract level; where the woman’s place is in society.