Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
TOTW 02/08: Was Lureen pregnant when she met Jack?
Brown Eyes:
--- Quote from: Artiste on January 20, 2008, 06:51:08 pm ---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.
--- End quote ---
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:
--- Quote from: ineedcrayons on January 21, 2008, 11:57:00 am ---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.
--- End quote ---
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:
--- Quote from: Jeff Wrangler on January 21, 2008, 03:32:03 pm ---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.
--- End quote ---
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.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version