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Your age and your favourite cowboy

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Shuggy:
Jeff Wrangler wrote

--- Quote ---Ya know, this poll is kind of giving me the courage to mention something I've been privately wondering, that kind of relates to this poll.

I've been wondering what role, if any, age, gender, and orientation play in who we find "more attractive," Ennis or Jack. (I suppose a straight male wouldn't find either "attractive.")

I'll only use myself as an example of what I'm wondering about. I'm a middle-aged gay male--and Jack is my ideal fantasy young cowboy lover, no doubt about it. But, I honestly ask myself, if were 20--okay 25--years younger, would I be more attracted to strong, silent "daddy" Ennis? Quite possibly, I might be.
--- End quote ---
So let's see if we can devise a poll that asks this.

serious crayons:
Good idea, Shuggy and Jeff! I've wondered about this, too. Obviously people are constantly making their preferences known in their posts, but I've had a hard time discerning a pattern. I hope more people respond to this poll; it's a little too soon at this point for the results to be very scientific.

BTW, I'm a woman and an Ennisophile. But, as I am several years older than Ennis is even at the end of the movie, I hardly think of him as the "daddy" type. Far from it!

Jeff Wrangler:
Thanks for devising this poll, Shuggy!  :)

And, latjoreme, I'm glad to know I haven't been the only one wondering about this!

Maybe there really isn't a pattern, but it would be interesting to know that, too.

serious crayons:
Regardless of what we learn about demographic patterns, I definitely think there's a correlation between which cowboy one favors and how one interprets the movie.

To put it in broadest terms, Ennisophiles tend to view Ennis more sympathetically, to see him as much as a victim of tragedy as a perpetrator, and to see Ennis as the story's protagonist. Jackophiles are more likely to see Jack as the tragic victim of Ennis' shilly-shallying, and to see the POVs as evenly divided.

These basic differences encompass lots of smaller disagreements. Jeff, you and I have debated the whole "did Ennis realize he was in love only after Jack's death" issue. This might be another question that distinguishes Jackophiles and Ennisophiles.

If only we could put all that into a poll! But I'm sure that people of either orientation (Ennis or Jack, I mean) will feel free to voice their opinions of my theory.

Jeff Wrangler:

--- Quote from: latjoreme on April 23, 2006, 01:22:52 pm ---Regardless of what we learn about demographic patterns, I definitely think there's a correlation between which cowboy one favors and how one interprets the movie.

To put it in broadest terms, Ennisophiles tend to view Ennis more sympathetically, to see him as much as a victim of tragedy as a perpetrator, and to see Ennis as the story's protagonist. Jackophiles are more likely to see Jack as the tragic victim of Ennis' shilly-shallying, and to see the POVs as evenly divided.

These basic differences encompass lots of smaller disagreements. Jeff, you and I have debated the whole "did Ennis realize he was in love only after Jack's death" issue. This might be another question that distinguishes Jackophiles and Ennisophiles.

If only we could put all that into a poll! But I'm sure that people of either orientation (Ennis or Jack, I mean) will feel free to voice their opinions of my theory.


--- End quote ---

You could be on to something very interesting here, too.

I can only speak for myself in this, of course, and I'm not sure I fit the paradigm of your hypothesis (how's them for fifty-cent words!). For my own demographic and other reasons, I might be "in love" with Jack, but for other, life-experience reasons, I actually identify with Ennis! I don't see Jack as a victim, nor can I condemn Ennis--because as much as I may regret his refusing to try to build a life with Jack, I think I understand where he's coming from. In a nutshell I really have both sympathy and empathy for both of them--but perhaps that, in itself, is related to my age--it's not for me to call it "maturity."  ;)

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