Culture: Perpetuated Ideas
How are sisterhood and loyalty established?
In both Thelma and Louise and Set It Off used the ideas of sisterhood and loyalty as a momentous and essential theme in the films. In Thelma and Louise, the two women intrinsically need to have a bond, the sisterhood and the requirement of loyalty in order to embark on their trip in the first place. The two women are going on the road, they are two white females who seldom incur freedom from (oppressive) men and therefore depend on one another’s strengths to help motivate their travel. When the two first get into trouble, it was this bond, their intrinsic loyalty to one another that allows them to ultimately overcome their first oppressor and give them the motivation to continue with their trip. From this point on it’s all in the loyalty that the two can perform their crimes, and ultimately agree on death for themselves.
In Set It Off the idea of sisterhood and loyalty are portrayed a bit differently. Although the themes are essential to the plot, sisterhood and loyalty, due to culture and location, display essential differences from Thelma and Louise. In Set It Off the women are ultimately dependent upon their sisterhood all of the time. This is apparent because they do not actually embark on a trip, and therefore use the idea of sisterhood and loyalty at all times. However, this idea is heightened when the women decide to induce crime, and loyalty becomes the most important thing.
When Cleo becomes “irresponsible� with her cut of the money they stole it plays out like as a disrespect to the rest of the women. All four of the women’s situations are completely different and Cleo seems the least strapped or deserved of the cash, therefore her loyalty and sisterhood are questioned by the other women.
How is violence coded by gender and color?
In the film Set It Off gender and color are a significant idea behind the plot. It’s seen that these women are struggling to make it, that they’ve been brought into a neighborhood/situation and therefore they are required to bring themselves out of this situation. In Thelma and Louise their gender is less of an issue because they remain in sensical line with their femininity, unlike in Set It Off where they’ve developed themselves into essential men in order to overcome what they’re ultimately fighting. In T&L the notion that they are women is important in relation to their violence, but not once did the fact that they were white become an issue. Their violence was seen as more defense than malicious act.
In Set It Off the women were seen as being perpetuated by their situation, their “nature,� per se, that conditions them to be violent, and therefore it’s more expected but less accepted. Their violence, due to color and culture, is less acceptable. They’re malicious?