Thelma & Louise vs Set if Off
How does identification for the spectator work in each of these films?
For me I identified quite differently to the two films. In Thelma & Louise I identified with both characters. The film was empowering for me as a woman. After the watching the film I felt proud to be a woman. I was proud because both Thelma and Louise stood up for the rights of women. They assertively reacted to the stereotypical ways of masculinity in USA culture. They didn’t passively let it happen around them. Also violence in Thelma & Louise was justified for me; they really only bodily harmed one person, by killing him. On the other hand in Set it Off I found myself as a spectator not identifying with anyone of the characters. It may be due to race and/or their portrayed life experiences compared to mine, but I didn’t have any strong identity to one character. In the end I identified more with the life experiences/friendship of Thelma and Louise than I did with the women in Set if Off. I do have some assumptions that my identification with the characters has some ground within race but can’t really figure it out. I am white and I have experienced my “white privilege” all my life, so maybe that effects how I identify with certain characters.
How is violence coded by gender and color?
I do believe that violence in the two films were fundamentally the same but when acted out became different. In both films women were caught in a world dominated by men, stuck in a system that wouldn’t let them escape, and situations that caused them to act out. But when the women started to act out we, the viewer, saw it played out differently and one cannot help to see how color effected it. In Thelma & Louise their violence was spontaneous, not planned; thus make them seem more like the victim acting in self defense and not the perpetrator. In Set if Off the women because of their circumstance decided to act out by robbing banks. The women planned their action, even contemplated if it was the right thing to do or not, but in the end going for it anyways. From the get go the women in Set it Off were not the victims. I don’t think it was as jarring for the audience to watch either because they were black. In USA media and news, people of color are shown to be far more violent than their white counterparts. Also the mere fact that Queen Latifa’s character was highly masculine justified the violence as well.