Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum
You shut up about Ennis - this ain't (all) his fault
BradInBlue:
There was nothing 'gay' about Jack and Ennis. What those terms mean in 1963 do not describe them nor does AP's story and Ang Lee's movie. And when J & E disavow being queer up with the sheep, it is true. They weren't queer. Or gay. The movie wasn't about queer or gay. It was about two dudes that fell in love.
BBM_victim:
Exactly! Thank youBradInBlue!
serious crayons:
The question is not whether they could be described by a term that wasn't in widespread use at the time and that Brad now objects to for political reasons.
The question is where they fell on the Kinsey scale. My impression is that they were pretty close to entirely homosexual, but under immense societal pressure to pretend otherwise they "passed" as heterosexual.
Jack had come to terms with his own orientation and would have been completely willing to have hookups or even relationships with other men. But he realized after the bar scene there weren't many prospects for same-sex relationships on the rodeo circuit, so he "settled" for Lureen. But their marriage was mostly sexless -- what Lureen metaphorically meant when she observed that "husbands never want to dance with their wives" -- especially after he reunited with Ennis.
Ennis was scared straight, so to speak, by the childhood trauma of witnessing what happened to Earl and Rich. Note that both of those names signify wealth -- those two were living "the sweet life." But Ennis' father showed him how their society regarded people like that, and it was a powerful lesson. I believe Ennis was probably aware, or becoming aware, around that time of his own sexual orientation, and quickly realized he had to hide it at all costs. To Ennis, attraction to men was so shameful he could never even accept his own. He became a self-hating homophobe, which is why he could never be a fully committed partner to Jack. Like Jack, he did what society expected of him and married Alma and dated Cassie. He could have sex with women, but he wasn't really into it, which is why both relationships fell apart. Yet because that horrific childhood experience stuck with him, Ennis was never able to accept his own feelings or stop fearing what "people on the street" might think.
I'm sure it's perfectly possible for random-gendered couples to fall in love without having previously realized they were attracted to that gender. I have heard of people saying that about themselves, so never say never. But I think most people, from about adolescence on, at least notice their own physical attractions, whether it's entirely for men, entirely for women, or some of both, whether they act on them or not.
CellarDweller:
great post, Katherine!
Front-Ranger:
I entirely agree, great post!
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