Nor do Heath and Ennis sound alike! I was shocked when I watched the extras on the DVD to see how very different they are! It helped convince me how fine an actor Heath Ledger really is to have been able to make that kind and level of transformation. It may even support my theory that sexuality exists on a continuum. We may have certain "default" settings but a motivation like acting and portraying a different character may help an actor actually experience things he/she wouldn't while on their default setting.
Take the example of men (or women) in prison. Many straight ones participate in homosexual acts. You mean to tell me that ALL of these acts are simply physical w/ absolutely no emotional element? I find that hard to believe knowing how human beings function. It may be true for emotionally-stunted prisoners such as sociopaths but those can't feel much if any emotion for heterosexual partners, either.
I suspect that most homophobia is more the expression of the desire to return to a simpler, if mythical past where things were more black and white. I don't expect, however, that that resembles reality very much.
If you're interested in the nature/nurture, mind/body question, one of my instructors sent me a book (she's a sweetie and has done this several times) entitled "Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind" by Dr. V.S. Ramachandran, a noted neuroscientist. In it he talks a lot about "phantom limbs" and then gets into the mind/body relationship.To give you a preview of this guy's sense of humor, take the following paragraph that talks about quantitative vs. qualitative research.
"A tension exists in neurology between those who believe that the most valuable lessons about the brain can be learned from statistical analyses involving large numbers of patiens and those who believe that doing the right kind of experiements on the right patients--even a single patient--can yeild much more useful information. This is really a silly debate since its resolution is obvious: It's a good idea to begin with experiements on single cases and then to confirm the findings through studies of additional patients. By way of analogy, imagine that I cart a pig into your living room and tel you that it can talk. You might say, "Oh, really? Show me." I then wave my wand and the pig starts talking. You might respond, "My God! That's amazing!" You are not likely to say, "Ah, but that's just one pig. Show me a few more and then I might believe you." Yet this is precisely the attitude of many people in my field.
That paragraph cracked me up!
Uh, oh, I just read some more in the book that suggests a neurological basis of homophobia! Want to hear it?