Poll: Your opinion on Jake's silence

[Marge_Innavera]

Well if some people said mean things about Jake on LJ, i suppose they weren't real fans in the first place and use his relationship with Reese and silence about Heath to attack hiim. They probably look for reasons to do so.
His fans don't always have to understand/agree with his actions, they also have a right to question some of his actions, but in a respectful way of course. The other people you mentioned weren't real fans in the first place!

Yes, I understand the appeal of dismissing as "not real" anything that discomforting.  People who are emotionally attached to intolerant religions do it all the time.

However, the names attached to many of these comments were people who have been very active in BBM discussions and forums in general and in fanfiction in particular.

But how are you going to spin remarks such as:

"pussy bitched and lily livered"

"I swear to the Lord of Cheetos if Jake ever showed up in my neighbourhood and walked around to buy sneakers, I'd show him some Canadian hostilatility." 

"don't know what to believe,jake can't be so bad,i hate reese witherspoon,still waiting for this nightmare to be over."

Jake gyllenho is surely a hag bag to the 9th degree for traeting his buddy so shabbily. May Jake one day rot in hell."

Not to mention all the pseudo-righteous sermonettes about 'freedom of speech.'  Sorry, I don't agree that the people who turned on Jake weren't "fans" just because their behavior was disillusioning and/or disturbing.

There were a few bright spots. One person quoted Johnny Depp from another context: ""I refuse to be a part of this morbid circus", and one peeved fan was honest enough to describe herself as a "bitter old hag."

[Brown Eyes]

Wow  Marge!  Those are really harsh and disturbing comments!   Where did you find them?

[louisev]

My take on some of the more extreme comments is that they come from fans who put Jake on a rather high pedestal, and whether they acknowledge it or not, transferred a lot of the fictional dynamic of Jack and Ennis's relationship to Heath and Jake, despite real life circumstances proving otherwise (the fact that both men are unquestionably heterosexual and have had many relationships with high profile actresses and models.)  The chatter that pervaded the Jake fan threads from early in 2006 have traditionally been full of negative feedback for any woman that Jake dated, some with a not so subtle urging for him to "admit that he is in love with Heath."  Not only was the fantasy illusion of some secret affair between Jake and Heath permanently shattered with Heath's death, but the consolation prize of having a public witness to Jake's grief - the grief of a lover rather than a friend - was also denied to fans.

Whether fans want to admit it or not, Jake's decision to keep his mourning private did contradict the fantasy narrative that has been built up for a couple of years now and fed a frenetic and heavily-trafficked RPS fan base.  I never had so many squealing comments to anything I have written as I did for my RPS drabble series, which was in no way explicit... it has always been something of a mystery to me how deeply devoted RPS fans have been to the Jake-Heath fantasy.

[Oregondoggie]

I wonder if some folk felt Jake was indirectly downplaying his role in Brokeback Mountain.  Seems to me, future explicit statements by him about Brokeback will clarify the confusion.  If one has been part of a movie that has become "canonical", a movie that raised Jake Gyllenhaal to iconic status, it ain't gonna be easy avoiding comment down the years.



   

[MilAn]

Well, i remember how nasty some "fans" were towards Michelle Williams and sometimes towards Heath, because they wanted Heath to be with Jake (back then single). Some of you must remember those days. There is nothing you can do about disillusioned people!

[MilAn]

louise van hine, i think most fans who believe that Jake is gay think his boyfriend is actor Austin Nichols, there are even fansites dedicated to them.
Very few people actually linked Jake to Heath lately, those who did, mostly did it in fan fics. That's what i noticed!

[serious crayons]

Slightly OT but, speaking of nasty remarks on the internet, I just read a story on Slate about nasty remarks that have been posted on YouTube about that video of the laughing baby!

http://www.slate.com/id/2189281/

Things like, this child must be on drugs, he's possessed by Satan, he's got a big head, insane dwarf, etc. etc. If people can find ugly things to say about a cute happy baby, what won't they say about a grown man!

Apparently when people feel they are speaking anonymously, politeness and even common decency often go out the window.

      

[MilAn]

Apparently when people feel they are speaking anonymously, politeness and even common decency often go out the window.

I agree!

It's sad that people said so nasty things about the poor baby. I found the laughing baby so cute. If i were a parent, i wouldn't post videos of my kids online though.

[BlissC]

Apparently when people feel they are speaking anonymously, politeness and even common decency often go out the window.

      

So true. If you hide behind a screen name you can say whatever you want, safe in the knowledge that no-one knows who you are, and if the residents get p***** off with your trolling, off you go to somewhere else and start it all up again. The web allows you to say and do things you would never consider saying to someone face to face.

Irritating though they are, these sad delusional people are more to be pitied than blamed really if they have so little in their own lives that they have to invent other people's to make them happy (though I still have a zero tolerance policy towards them)

[MsMercury]

Well, i remember how nasty some "fans" were towards Michelle Williams and sometimes towards Heath, because they wanted Heath to be with Jake (back then single). Some of you must remember those days. There is nothing you can do about disillusioned people!

Wow, I wasn't around here back then for any of that stuff. I think people were projecting their feelings about BBM and wanting Jake and Heath to be just like the characters in the movie so the relationship would go on. Kind of like reversing an unhappy ending.

louise van hine, i think most fans who believe that Jake is gay think his boyfriend is actor Austin Nichols, there are even fansites dedicated to them.
Very few people actually linked Jake to Heath lately, those who did, mostly did it in fan fics. That's what i noticed!

Well there's another rumor I've never heard. I don't know the name Austion Nichols. Maybe if I see his face I'll know who he is.  I wonder what their basis is for believing that.