TOTW 02/08: Was Lureen pregnant when she met Jack?

[Luvlylittlewing]

I just don't see Lureen being pregnant when she met Jack, if  for no other reason then this: she was competing in a rodeo, where falls and indeed, life threatening accidents occur frequently. If she wass pregnant she would never have entered that competition

Unless the child was unwanted and she didn't care if she lost it.

[Ellemeno]

Unless the child was unwanted and she didn't care if she lost it.

Right.  When I was younger I knew women who treated their bodies pretty harshly in hopes of dislodging a maybe baby growing inside.

Lureen's nipples don't look pregnant when she takes her bra off. 

I'm also thinking that she was hot for Jack and she knew she didn't need him to be a provider.  She and Daddy were going to be the providers.  She could just have him for his cuteness and sweetness and that would be plenty.

I like this pregnancy question.  None of us know the answer.  But pregnancy or possible pregnancy have shaped the rest of people's lives since time began.

BTW, after someone mentioned several pages back that Brigitte Bardot is a lesbian, I did a search on that.  While I found a lesbian movie scene she was in on YouTube (hubba hubba), I saw no mention of her real life sexual preferences anywhere. 

[Penthesilea]

I still don't think that she was pregnant when she met him-to be honest, that really just comes from my opposition to the notion that, because she's sexually confident, she got pregnant.  This is too much of a cliche for my taste!  

Good point.

I may be wrong, but has it been established through time lines etc that the marriage to Jack happened around the same time?  They may well have been married for a good while before the baby came along.  I'd be interested to see if anyone has worked this out.

Yup, people have worked this out. In fact, the timeline is the only argument (IMO) which speaks pro an already existing pregnancy. Talking about the movie here, since we don't have any clues from Annie's story about the timeline in this regard.

In short: Lureen and Jack met after July, 4th, 1966, because it was after the fireworks scene. Brokeplex says they met in August 1966; there's a sign to be read at the rodeo event when they meet (I haven't looked this up).
Do the math: 9 months pregnancy + Bobby being 8 months old = 17 months.
But from July/August 1966 to September 1967 (=time of the reunion) it's only 14/13 months.

More detailed explanations about the timeline can be found here:

http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php/topic,15379.msg311426.html#msg311426

and here:

http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php/topic,16269.msg316451.html#msg316451


I personally think she was not pregnant when she met Jack. I think she was really smitten by him. That's why she approached him with her matin' call, not because she was pregnant.
I can't see anything hinting towards a pregnancy (apart from the timeline, that is). And I simply think they made a mistake with the timeline.

[brokeplex]

The social censure would have been too much for the Newsomes to handle if Lureen had borne a child out of wedlock.

I agree. The stigma on a woman raising a child on her own was much milder than on a woman getting pregnant outside of marriage. Back in them days, you weren't even supposed to have sex outside of marriage!

[Artiste]

Thanks Ellemeno!

I believe that Brigitte Bardot is lesbian, since I think mentioned that here, and that I had seen that on TV, about her life, either in English, likely in a French documentary film. S.V.P., if you not Brigitte, please forgive me. I knew persons who did communicated with her, since they and many other gays... lived in many apartment buildings she owned, sold and re-owned because they complained to her since she had promised never to sell nor put them out! Maybe they had mentioned to me that she was. Anyway, I feel that Lureen is not Brigitte, but she was known by the others men as many like a sex kitten Brigitte was know to be via her movies; Lureen does act so rapidly having sex with Jack, taking her clothes off and mounting him, etc.; no harm done, I say since I applaud her if that was what she wanted and did!!

I do think that Lureen was at least one month or near so pregnant, and feeling sexy (valid even more for sex as in that state??), and so she rushed Jack for sex and into marriage. As some of you know, I am also trying to prove that Lureen is a lesbian and must therefore find a husband quickly too! See my thread if Lureen is lesbian or bisexual.

There is/are ambivalence, is that the right word about Lureen, her actions, her words, her anxiousness, etc.; may I say, and if she is lesbian, then that says something about her actions!!

No harm done anyone to anyone on Bettermost nor to those in Annie's story or in the MB movie nor to any writers, any others; that is my investigation as possiblities.

Why Lureen have issues?? There are women issues, right to exploit, mentioned in the BM movie??
I need help...

hugs!!

Hugs!!

[Brown Eyes]

Lureen does act so rapidly having sex with Jack, taking her clothes off and mounting him, etc.; no harm done, I say since I applaud her if that was what she wanted and did!!

I do think that Lureen was at least one month or near so pregnant, and feeling sexy (valid even more for sex as in that state??), and so she rushed Jack for sex and into marriage. As some of you know, I am also trying to prove that Lureen is a lesbian and must therefore find a husband quickly too! See my thread if Lureen is lesbian or bisexual.

Artiste, I really don't understand what you mean with these two observations.  In the first instance, you note that Lureen is assertive/excited/pro-active about having sex with Jack.  This only serves to demonstrate that Lureen is heterosexual.  I agree, that it's great for her that she's so sexually confident and I also applaud her for that.  But, still her excitement is over having sex with a man... which visually demonstrates to the viewer that she's at least got strong heterosexual desires/urges.

And, I don't understand why, if Lureen was a lesbian she would be interested in finding a husband at all. 

If she was pregnant before she met Jack (as you say you believe)... then this implies that you think she has yet another sexual encounter with another man.  Again, this would go to demonstrate that Lureen is interested in men and in having sex with men. 

We are not given any evidence that she has had sex with a woman of prefers to have sex with women... which is the definition of what a lesbian is.  If she is bisexual... we're not shown any actions on her part to demonstrate this.  We simply don't know enough about her character in certain respects.  On a completely speculative level it is possible that Lureen is bisexual... since a bisexual woman would be interested in men and women.  But, again, we don't see Lureen demonstrate interest in women in the film (and certainly not in the story)... so any notion that she could possibly be bisexual is entirely hypothetical.

But, what we do know for sure is that Lureen is very sexually confident and self-aware.  If she was a lesbian she would be using her sexual confidence to flirt with women and pursue women... not Jack.

[brokeplex]

I agree, character Lureen was not meant to be portrayed as a Lesbian. I don't believe that it is accidental on the part of the screen writers and Ang Lee to leave us tiny clues that Lureen was however pregnant with Bobby when she met Jack. Jack was convenient for Lureen to marry in several ways.

But, unlike Jack, Lureen was not using a marriage partner as a "beard" to hide a closeted life.

I thought of Jack's rodeo days today when D.L. put a George Strait CD into the player in my truck and I heard him sing, "Amarillo by Morning".

[serious crayons]

There's not one shred of evidence that Lureen was a lesbian -- on the contrary, all evidence suggests that she was straight. It's not the least bit ambiguous. The movie wouldn't even make any sense if Lureen were a lesbian. Frankly, I'm sick of going back to this question over and over.

As for whether she was pregnant, that's another story. There is some evidence that can be interpreted to mean she was already pregnant. Or that evidence can be dismissed as a combination of filming error and coincidence. I guess, ultimately, it's in the eye of the beholder.

If she WAS already pregnant, it wouldn't have much consequence for the rest of the movie. It would explain their hasty marriage, but that can be attributed to more obvious factors. She was attracted to Jack, she was bold and assertive and went for what she wanted. He was broke and tired of striking out with men, found her appealing in a Platonic way, and was resigned to conforming to cultural expectations of what men were supposed to do.

The only repercussions a possible existing pregnancy creates are: It helps explain why Jack was so amenable to ditching his family of the sweet life. And it explains why L.D. Newsome backed down so quickly over Thanksgiving dinner.

[Jeff Wrangler]

If she WAS already pregnant, it wouldn't have much consequence for the rest of the movie. It would explain their hasty marriage, but that can be attributed to more obvious factors. She was attracted to Jack, she was bold and assertive and went for what she wanted. He was broke and tired of striking out with men, found her appealing in a Platonic way, and was resigned to conforming to cultural expectations of what men were supposed to do.

Maybe it wasn't even necessarily "platonic," if Jack, "tired of striking out with men," was at the point of trying to be straight or trying to deny his sexual attraction to men. I think he genuinely liked the direction she was going when she was clearly aiming for sex in the back seat of that car. He wouldn't have been the first gay man to have done this, and he sure enough wasn't the last.

[serious crayons]

Maybe it wasn't even necessarily "platonic," if Jack, "tired of striking out with men," was at the point of trying to be straight or trying to deny his sexual attraction to men. I think he genuinely liked the direction she was going when she was clearly aiming for sex in the back seat of that car. He wouldn't have been the first gay man to have done this, and he sure enough wasn't the last.

Well, this is a debate we've had before and it looks like we're still on opposite sides of it. 

I'm sure other gay men have done that. Ennis, for example. But to me, Jack looks pretty lonely on the dance floor. And in the backseat he looks like someone who suddenly realizes he has bitten off more than he can chew.