TOTW 07/07: Was Mr. Twist homophobic?

[Penthesilea]

Hi BetterMostians  !

Before we get into this week's TOTW, I'd like to remind you that you (yes, you) are welcome to suggest topics for discussion. Got a question you meant to ask for a long time? Want to relive an old debate? Changed your mind about something in the course of time?
Well, here's the place for it. Please don't hesitate to PM me or ineedcrayons about it. We love to hear your nominations  .


We now have a topic that has been discussed before on several threads, but never was a topic of its own. So maybe many BetterMostians have missed it yet. We're looking forward to hopefully a wide range of opinions on it.

Was Mr. Twist homophobic?

Mr. Twist (aka Old Man Twist, aka OMT) sure wasn't a candidate for "loveliest father and husband of the year" - but was he indeed a homophobe?

Another quick reminder: if you do have an opinion on this, but don't want to elaborate further; or just want to express your gut feeling, it's perfectly fine to reply with only a simple "yes" or "no" as answer.

[mvansand76]

Oh he definitely wasn't jumping up and down with excitement at the knowledge of Jack being gay, but I do think that he would have found a way to be accepting if Jack had brought Ennis to "lick that damn ranch into shape", because that would have saved his ranch.

[Brokeback_Dev]

Old man twist was homophobic in the way in despised his child for not being the "man" he should be.  Jack was a wonderful man and his undying love for Ennis Del Mar is part of what makes him the man he was.

[serious crayons]

OMT was an obnoxious SOB, but in the movie he doesn't say anything homophobic.

[moremojo]

He most likely was homophobic (most people in our culture are homophobic to varying degrees, and that includes most gay people), but not necessarily in a virulent way. His contempt for Jack, a man whose parents must have realized by this point to have been gay, is very apparent, as is his lack of sympathy for Ennis, who he surely realizes was Jack's lover. At the same time, I don't believe Mr. Twist was the type to go bashing out someone's brains with a tire iron just because they were different.

[Toast]

Jack seemed to know that he could bring a man back to the Twist ranch and work with his father.   He told the old man about Ennis, and didn't seem to get any stong negative signals from his father.   When Ennis nixed that, Jack was willing to substitute another man for Ennis and intended to set up a home in Lightning Flat.   I think Old Man Twist was one of these cold, bordering on cruel, people who cared little for anybody's feeling since he felt that there was work to be done and it had to be done.   Whether one were gay or straight or asexual probably meant little to him.   He judged a man or woman by the job getting done.   Affection, lust or sympathy meant little to him.  His coldly attentive wife was probably more affectionate than he could understand.   

No, I don't think John C. Twist was homophobic.   I like his being included in the film, since he represents lots of people we see in our lives.

[jstephens9]

First of all, do you really think Mr. Twist would even know what homophobic meant  Anyway, just as with so much of the movie and the book, so much is left to the imagination here and so many different intrepretations can be made. Mr. Twist certainly didn't act like a very nice person and he certainly did not seem to care much about Ennis. However, there is really never anything said or even implied as to the reason why he dislikes Ennis. Did he dislike Ennis because he knew that Jack and Ennis had a relationship? Perhaps he disliked him because he never followed through on Jack's wish that they move to the ranch, build a log cabin, and whip things into shape. After all Mr. Twist would have liked the help with the ranch, but it never came to pass basically because of Ennis' refusal. Perhaps Mr. Twist blamed Ennis for Jack's death. After all, would Jack probably would not have died if Ennis would have decided to live and be with him. These are just all possible thoughts about Mr. Twist. Again, we never really know, just as we really never know so much of this very deep and intense masterpiece.

[serious crayons]

I think Mr. Twist knew all about Jack and Ennis. He indicates it symbolically when he says "I know where Brokeback Mountain is." And he indicates it more overtly when he talks about how Jack intended to leave his wife and ranch up with Ennis (and then another fella). OMT knows the score.

Still, he's a jerk. He's a jerk to his son, just like lots of fathers of straight sons are jerks to them. And he's a jerk to Ennis, like a lot of fathers of straight children are jerks to their kids' romantic partners. In the context of this movie, some viewers are tempted to draw a line from OMT's behavior to Jack's sexual orientation. But the movie doesn't draw that line.

This for me is a particularly interesting twist -- so to speak -- in the plot. Ennis has spent his life assuming that anybody who knew about his sexual orientation would condemn him. Now here are two people who don't. One of them is a kind and grieving mother, so that's not so surprising. But the other is an SOB, the kind of person that everything has led Ennis -- and us viewers -- to assume would be homophobic.

Yet he isn't, or at least gives no sign of it.

[huntinbuddy]

OMT was an obnoxious SOB, but in the movie he doesn't say anything homophobic.

I agree with crayons here.   While he may have been homophobic in his own way, or with his kind who lived in the area, he never said anything in the movie or short story that removed all doubt like Joe Aguirre did.

I think John Twist was fully aware of the relationship that Ennis had with Jack.  Just the way he sneers when he talks about Jack "bringin another fella up here..." was what he felt was the most damaging thing he could say to Ennis at the time.   And as a side note, living on a ranch, OMT would have seen homosexual activity between the animals on his ranch.  I grew up on a farm, and it happens.....naturally.

[moremojo]

And as a side note, living on a ranch, OMT would have seen homosexual activity between the animals on his ranch.  I grew up on a farm, and it happens.....naturally.

A lot of city folk are ignorant of this phenomenon, and as we are becoming a human family wherein the majority will soon be urban, I imagine the ignorance of, or at least lack of exposure to this reality will increase even further.

I don't think this would necessarily have had any bearing on whether Mr. Twist was homophobic or not, though. Many bigots, when confronted with the facts of homosexual behavior occurring in non-human species, counter that human beings "should be" held to a higher standard than non-human animals, and should not pursue base natural inclinations that amoral animals mindlessly follow.