Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
Brokeback as an Anti-Gay Polemic : essay by W.C. Harris
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: garycottle on January 14, 2008, 06:32:35 am ---If there are gay men out there that feel they can't come out because they don't identify with the boys on Queer Eye For the Straight Guy, then one shouldn't blame a segmant of the gay communtiy for projecting that image of gay men and ignoring all other examples. It is pop culture that is constantly giving us this flat, two-dimensional portrait of gay men, not gay men themselves, or a portion thereof.
--- End quote ---
Bravo, Gary, and Amen!
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: bradINblue on January 14, 2008, 02:34:49 am ---Jack and Ennis weren't gay (the term was queer in 1963). Gay has become to mean way more than a guy who wants to be in the arms of another guy. A way to dress and decorate. A way to vote. Political correctness at all cost. Relating to females more than men. Rainbow flags and parades. In later years viciousness and resentment. Youth and sex.
Jack and Ennis weren't that back when they was young, no more than they would be that today. If J&E were together today, they would not be considered gay by any standard.
Jack and Ennis were like a lot of closeted guys are today. They didn't/don't fit in to the gay mainstream lifestyle. They choose to live their lives behind rings and kids and fullfill ( so sad ) their sexual desires like Jack did or find love like they both found in a very similar way to the story of BBM.
Brokeback isn't a gay love story. It's about guys who love other guys but aren't 'gay'. They are very similar to their hetro brethern with only one exception--who they wanna fuck. Ms. Proulx understood this more so than most gay men can comprehend. The result, Brokeback Mountain.
The story was ment to be anti-gay.
Brad
--- End quote ---
Well, no--and a little bit yes.
This is probably not far wrong as a description of how many in mainstream hetero America perceive what it means to be gay. But this is an extremely limited view, fostered by the mass media (particularly television and movies). I'm not completely enamoured of the term gay myself, but, like it or not, in common usage in the language today, any man whose emotional attachment (love) is to other men, or who has sex with other men (especially to the exclusion of women), or who settles down and leads a partnered existence with another man, is gay. That's just what we're called today, and while it may not be ideal, I do think it's an improvement over queer or fairy or pansy or any other such term. It just seems to me to be a waste of time and energy to insist that one is not gay because one doesn't fit a media-fostered stereotype (which, in fact, like all stereotypes, has its roots in the reality of the lives of some men but by no means all who are sexually orientated toward other men).
Artiste:
RossInIllinois, may I applaud your comment:
In the begining the movie appears to break new ground until the last 1/2 hour then it starts looking like a stereotypical gay subject matter movie where something bad has to happen to the gay guy. Not unlike the movie As Good as it Gets, and many many others. Its to bad this story/movie could not have been more of a clean slate and broken some new ground. BBM has more "gay is bad" stereotypes and situations than the positive im afraid even for 1963. The message BBM sends is two men can fall in love and get each other off but nothing good will come of it and you will never be really happy if your "gay". IMO this is a very anti gay film with a very good disguise as a love story to soften the blow. (no pun intended)
.......
RossINIllinois and to all too: may I say that the BM film does some cutting edge, but mainly for other issues, including some too rare gay ones. It would and could have been much much pro-gay, but only some anti-gay (if needed).
I agree with you Ross... that much more could have been done to break new grounds for gay living. And I still think that Annie and the BM producers/filmakers/screen writers still could, as one or many reasons I want an BM II, yes 2nd or serie, at least. However, similar stories to that of BM can be done by us gays, you think so too Ross and all of you??
Hugs!!
ifyoucantfixit:
If my statement now is OT just let me know and I will remove it to my own blog. But as to the question, "Is BBM an Anti gay Polemic. ??
I have to ask the question, is then the movie an anti-marriage polemic. Or is it a anti-hetero marriage polemic.
Because as I see the picture, it portrays all forms of human connection . Gay connection, hetero connections and marriage, as a polemic. It therefor shows that all are doomed to fail. Through either heartbreak, or death, or apathy. Leaving all
who partake of those behaviors, subject to every form of human pain..Including child abandonment, and a slow and
painful death alone.
This movie was not a documentary. It meant not to show that you have this happen, if you do this or that. It
was simply I believe a small window into these peoples life, showing the things that caused them to "end up here."
The women except for actual death. Sufffered just as surely and just as painfully as the men. They had one thing
also to battle that the men didnt. They had no ability to stop or change the things that were happening. Either by not even
being aware of the things that were happening. or if they did know..They too were uneducated and ill prepared to
know what to do about it. Alma had tried to ignore it, im sure in hopes it would run its course, and her husband would
finally return to her...That not happening she then gave it up. She turned to some new form of a life. But I dont think
that makes BBM a movie that is an anti-marriage polemic. It is just the fact that bad things can happen to good people.
That ignorance is its own reward. On all its various guises...Homophobia, or love, how to deal with an unhappy marriage..
They all are in a gordian knot of pain and unfamiliar territory..With no real equipment to deal.
Artiste:
Thanks ifyoucantfixit!
Wow, wow, you sure bring news when you say:[
i]is then the movie an anti-marriage polemic[/i]
Or is it a anti-hetero marriage polemic
.....
Ifyoucantfixit, may I say no as an immediate answer to those those 2 questions you pose.
However, may I also think more about that?? You could be right!! In some ways.. or totally... I feel somehow.
Awaiting news on this anti-gay polemic by you and by others, as to more research, more comments or feelings,
hugs!
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version