[lbo-talk] Brokeback for gay men and small girls?

Emily Gordon emdashes at gmail.com
Wed Feb 1 17:31:45 PST 2006


Michael has a point. Another thought: If you reread the story, you notice that Proulx hardly includes anything about the cowboys' wives. But there they are in the movie, with lots of tear-jerking loneliness, hotter than beans in a campfire and shirtless! I sympathize with anyone trying to make a full screenplay out of a short story that's as much about atmosphere as it is about narrative, but who do you think those boobies were for if not for box-office-boosting, freaked-out straight men? I liked the movie, but found the overattention to the poor, purty wives surprisingly conventional, commercially minded, and distracting from the central story. And I'm a straight woman!

Anyway, difficult as it seems to be for most commentators to conceive, there may be many more women who find the idea/image of two men together erotic than current definitions of female desire may permit even them to recognize openly. That straight men are hot for lesbians (or, at least, girl-on-girl action) is a cliche. So women and gay men? Open-minded people should get past the tired misogyny of "fag hags" and ask more questions.


> <quote>
>
> "Brokeback" is a shrewdly crafted "prestige" picture aimed like a
> heat-seeking missile at the same female viewers who made "Queer as Folk" a
> cable hit. The movie is not daring, or edgy, or even particularly
> controversial. It's not about "gay liberation" or the radical politics that
> would transform self and society. What it is is a well-closeted romance,
> replete with studly leads smooching and muttering about "feelings" in ways
> sure to set aflutter those feminine hearts longing for a soft-core version
> of hot man-to-man action.
>
> <end excerpt>
>
> I don't mean to deny other readings, but I found this surprisingly true in
> own life.... And I have to say, my first reaction was to feel there was something
> progressive in this for young heterosexual girls, if not for grown up gay
> men. And perhaps when her cohort grows up, and forms half the world men
> inhabit, maybe they'll be that much less homophobia for them to have to deal
> with.
>
> Michael



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