Sisterhood and Outlaw Status
The four girls in Set It Off are good friends at the beginning of the movie. They become better friends throughout the film as they make decisions that only they can know about. Their loyalty is established by the banks that they rob and must keep between themselves. There are times when certain members of their group feel that they should stop robbing the banks but they always come back to needing money for T.T. to help her get her son back. They also want the money so that they can rise up and overcome living in the projects and the way that they were raised. This gives them all the motivation to keep on robbing the banks and sticking by their sisters. They create a bond that lasts throughout the entire movie, even until they end when they must part to be able to survive. In Thelma and Louise their loyalty is established in much the same way as Set It Off. They set out on the road to have a relaxing weekend to get away from it all and end up running from the law. They become close by killing the people they meet because all they have is one another. Their friendship is reaffirmed at the end of the movie when they decide that they will die together. If killing yourself with your best friend is not sisterhood and loyalty, then I don't know what is.
The outlaw status in both films is justified in similar ways. In Set It Off they justify their bank robbing at first because they are helping T.T. to get money to get her son out of social services custody. They also feel justified in doing it because Stony's brother was killed by the cops when he was mistaken for someone else. They also decide that if they are ever going to move out of the projects that they will have to rob a bank to get the money to do it. Thelma and Louise also justify their acts of murder throughout the film. At first their murder is justified as self-defense for Louise so that she wouldn't be injured or raped by the man at the bar. It becomes easier for them to kill people throughout the movie because they did it once already. We also feel that Thelma has been pushed to the edge by her husband. We justify her outlawness by the fact that we feel sorry for what she has had to go through.