Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
TOTW 16/07: Did Alma Jr. know Ennis was gay?
LauraGigs:
--- Quote ---But may I wonder if his wife wanted him to be the primary breadwinner? May I ask?
--- End quote ---
Sure, she did. She expected that he'd be the primary breadwinner and she'd be the primary house-person. Every time you see her in the film she's doing laundry or knitting, and in the one scene when Ennis comes home to find the postcard, she's cooking with Alma Junior right beside her, also in an apron at a little stove. (Basically instructing her little girl in the art of being a housewife.) Alma has no problem with the traditional setup at all.
If you remember the first scene in bed with her + Ennis, she wants to move to an apartment in town so Alma Junior will have playmates and Jenny (with her asthma spells) will be closer to medical services. The next thing you see, they're living there, and Alma is working. So evidently, that's the compromise she + Ennis came to: they're in a slightly more expensive place like she wanted, and she is earning a little extra money so they can afford it.
--- Quote ---So yes it would have happened then and would be now too that Ennis would have been an houseperson!!
May I say, yes!
...
That is one more reason for me to say that Alma Jr. knew that her father was bi or gay!! May I guess!! ??
--- End quote ---
I don't think so. It doesn't really make sense. Ennis would always want to work outside in the field.
And if Brokeback Mountain showed us anything, it's that gay men can be quite traditionally masculine! Being a houseperson doesn't make one more likely to be gay, and vice versa.
brokeplex:
--- Quote from: LauraGigs on December 02, 2007, 07:51:22 pm ---Sure, she did. She expected that he'd be the primary breadwinner and she'd be the primary house-person. Every time you see her in the film she's doing laundry or knitting, and in the one scene when Ennis comes home to find the postcard, she's cooking with Alma Junior right beside her, also in an apron at a little stove. (Basically instructing her little girl in the art of being a housewife.) Alma has no problem with the traditional setup at all.
If you remember the first scene in bed with her + Ennis, she wants to move to an apartment in town so Alma Junior will have playmates and Jenny (with her asthma spells) will be closer to medical services. The next thing you see, they're living there, and Alma is working. So evidently, that's the compromise she + Ennis came to: they're in a slightly more expensive place like she wanted, and she is earning a little extra money so they can afford it.
I don't think so. It doesn't really make sense. Ennis would always want to work outside in the field.
And if Brokeback Mountain showed us anything, it's that gay men can be quite traditionally masculine! Being a houseperson doesn't make one more likely to be gay.
--- End quote ---
great comments.....you know I do wonder if Ennis really was the "primary" source of income for the Delmar household. Ennis's occupation is low paying at best, and he never built up any seniority with the local ranching community because he quit his jobs from time to time. Alma was dedicated to her job and even took extra shifts.
As much as I really am not sympathetic at all with Ennis until near the end of the movie, I really liked and respected Alma. If I were straight I'd be her house-husband in no time flat!
Artiste:
Thanks LauraGigs, and thanks brokeplex!!
Brokeplex, you managed to make me laugh when you say you would be Alma's houseperson!! I wonder why you say that? May I ask?
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LauraGigs, you say: And if Brokeback Mountain showed us anything, it's that gay men can be quite traditionally masculine! Being a houseperson doesn't make one more likely to be gay.
May I add LauraGigs: Concerning that most femme-men, or men who dress in women's clothes, I have seen or read about in surveys are straights (mostly all. And I know that nearly all gay men that I met are indeed masculine!! You are right!! So this film breaks away a bit from others films who places feminine acting men as gay men!!
Since you say that being a male houseperson does not make him a gay man, you are right. I think that I met one last month who is a straight (heterosexual) man!
...
I think that if Ennis would have been let by his wife to be a houseperson, then Alma Jr. would have known earlier that her father was bi or a gay man!! ?? Would you think about that??
Hugs! Hugs!
Katie77:
--- Quote from: Artiste on December 03, 2007, 12:23:25 am ---
I think that if Ennis would have been let by his wife to be a houseperson, then Alma Jr. would have known earlier that her father was bi or a gay man!! ?? Would you think about that??
Hugs! Hugs!
--- End quote ---
Oh for God's sake......houseperson???.......we are talking the sixties, men went to work, women stayed home....or if women did go to work, it was usually to supplement the husband's income......
Alma Jnr would NOT have thought her father was gay whether he was a houseperson or whether he walked around the house in a dress.....he was HER father, thats all she saw him as........
Artiste:
Thanks Katie77!
When my father was sick, he continued to work outside the house, but when he could not at all anymore, he was inside the home. And just because he was gay or not, he did not wear a dress!! Not at all!!
So I think that him or Ennis as housepersons, would have been Ok then at that time, since they would have had no choice maybe, at least father had to do so: become a houseperson! Ennis continued to work outside the house, in the movie.
However, if Ennis would have continued to live but as an houseperson with his wife (Alma Sr.) working outside the house, surely he would have been giving signs, as he thought more about his life and his daughters lives as he took care of them more directly. And, therefore, somehow, I would think that Alma Jr. would have known that her father was a bi or gay man!! Surely so, don't you think?
Hugs!
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