Beating that queasiness: Straight, liberal and gun-shy about 'Brokeback'

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 1/15/06 | Dru Sefton

[TFFKAMM]

It's true, the movie "Brokeback Mountain" does provoke what one researcher calls "a very strong ick factor" in some straight men.

What is it in this story of two cowboy pals in 1960s Wyoming who find themselves in lifelong love -- yet go on to marry women -- that elicits this response from heterosexual males?

The answers are as complex as the plot.

A psychologist who coined the word "homophobic" said the revulsion is precisely that. A scientist who discovered genetic links to sexuality said he simply does not understand the response. The author of "The Sexual Brain" said there is nothing on a neurobiological basis to explain the aversion.

To film fan Eddie Hargreaves of Stockton, it's more like the "ick" of romantic drama. "I'm not going to speak for everybody," he said, "but I don't know a lot of straight guys who said, 'Oh, man, I can't wait to see "Bridges of Madison County," 1995's famous tearjerker.

"Brokeback Mountain," directed by Oscar winner Ang Lee and starring box-office hunks Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, is sparking both critical praise and water-cooler chatter. It's been nominated for seven Golden Globe awards.

But when movie critic Dave White, who is gay, wrote a humorous piece titled "The Straight Dude's Guide to 'Brokeback,' " "I got hundreds of messages, most of whom hated me for just existing," he said...

[Lunatic Fringe]

So... homophobia is an "illness", just like homosexuality was an "illness" back in the 40s.

[fox0566]

Yeah, I mean, the plot is.......they're gay. What normal person would be attracted to something like that?

[in hoc signo vinces]

And you are absolutely right to think and feel that way...but the "heterophobes" the moes out there that think "you" have no right to think and feel the way you do, and that there actions should be a social norm and everything else is "hate speech" against them whereas you beleive their acts are unnatural, which they are.

My point to the moes is...techonology being absent, if every human was a "moe" how long would the species last?

The answer to that question is why same sex behavior is unnatural...no matter how you slice it.

Does that mean I impune the rights of the moes to hold a job, to congregate, to live? No, but what that does mean is I stand up the right for hetero-sexual behavior being the norm in nature and all conventions of such marriage, adopting children, etc. being of primary importance for the function of society.

[Fenris6]

A psychologist who coined the word "homophobic" said the revulsion is precisely that. A scientist who discovered genetic links to sexuality said he simply does not understand the response.

Here's a clue: would the "scientist" spend time & money to go see a film about some guy boinking a goat?

[kimoajax]

Unnatural and aversion used to be synonyms. Today the unnatural seems synonymous with entertainment.

[Psycho_Bunny]

You know.....I don't see slasher flicks, or dramas about psychotic murderers, or watch documentaries on predators because I don't want to have the slightest idea about what goes on in their brains.

Really.  Their brains are broken and beyond that, I don't give a sh!t and I don't wanna know.

And I don't want to know what's going on in the brain of one guy when he "falls in love" with another because, their brains are broken. 

Sexual love is how nature and/or God gets the person with the penis to put up with the person without one -  and visa versa - for the purpose of having offspring.  That's it.

 

 

[TheGeezer]

They are NOT cowboys.

They are sheepboys.

[ahayes]

That provoked an honest-to-goodness laugh out loud.

[DTogo]

Imagine the POSITIVE response from heterosexual male movie-goers if "Brokeback" was about two lesbian cowgirls, and starred, say, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Jessica Alba.

[visualops]

"This is a threat to most men because it opens up the possibility that two men who are friendly may become affectionate," Shary said. "That's something men just do not want to consider."

Countless movies feature characters who marry (or are married to) someone but linger evermore over feelings for another -- think "Casablanca."

"But this is about two men who are attracted to each other and keep that connection. That's especially troubling for some men," Shary said, adding, "but that's what makes this a truly revolutionary film."

George Weinberg said this aversion is "definitely homophobia." He is the New York City psychologist and researcher who invented that term in the 1960s and broke ground with his 1972 book, "Society and the Healthy Homosexual."

"This is the idea of one man's adoration for another," Weinberg said. "A love affair more deep and lasting and romantic" than with their wives.

His advice for straights uneasy about "Brokeback" is: "First understand you have this problem. At least by acknowledging it, that's a start. It's like saying, 'I have a fear of heights.' "

________________________________________

This whole movie is about gay activism. That goes beyond "ick" for me.

[bigsigh]

an idea worth pitching.

[Ecliptic]

1> There is no such thing as "homophobic"..there is heteraphobia, however.....people who are scared they will become heterasexual unless they push their agenda..

2> Homosexuals need to realize they have a problem, then they can rid themselves of it...like being afraid of heights..

3> So, now the heteraphobes don't just want to stop homosexuals from being abused mentaly and physically, but they don't want anyone to THINK ill of them, either....

4> the next step is nonhomosexuals will be forced to preach homosexuality...

[Khankrumthebulgar]

The Empty Suits in the media and Hollyweird are trying to use the power of the media to push Homosexuals are superior to straights. There is no end of Pro-Gay propaganda being shoved down our throats, being promoted in our Schools etc.

And there is a war on Straights by the Media. To hell with them and Hollyweird. Boycott their trash. They are crapping all over our values.

[newzjunkey]

spend time & money to go see a film about some guy boinking a goat?

Didn't Jim Carrey do that in one of his films? That's what I heard.

[Candor7]

"So... homophobia is an "illness", just like homosexuality was an "illness" back in the 40s."

OMG, I am sooooo sick!!!

---

Homo,Homo, On The Range

Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam
Where the queers and the homos all play
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are liberal all day

Home, home on the range
Where the queers and the homophiles play
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are liberal all day

How often at night when the heavens are bright
With the light from your glittering arse
Have I stood there amazed and asked as I gazed
If your instruments exceed that of ours

Home, home on the range
Where the queers and the homophiles play
Where seldom is heard a discouraging bird
And the skies are Socialist all day

Where the air is so pure, the zephyrs so free
The breezes so redolent of farts
That I would not exchange my home on the range
For all of the heterosexual arts

Home, home on the range
Where the queers and the anally fixated play
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are Sodomized all day

Oh, I love those wild flow'rs in this dear land of ours
Whose men, I love to hear scream
And I love their large c__ks and the homophile flocks
That graze on the mountaintops green

Home, home on the range
Where the queers and the homophiles play
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are so Hollywood all day.

[Popman]

Weinberg said.....His advice for straights uneasy about "Brokeback" is: "First understand you have this problem. At least by acknowledging it, that's a start. It's like saying, 'I have a fear of heights.' "

No, I don't have a problem with homosexuals. Doesn't mean I want to watch men do unnatural things like kissing, hugging in a sexual way and having anal sex. I don't want to watch my dogs hump either or people eat worms or bugs or maggots.

Also, if I have a fear of heights it's because I think I might fall to my death. Some people can overcome this fear. I can't overcome the aversion to watching men perform anal sex unless I begin to believe there is nothing wrong with it.

Asinine comparisons. But what do you expect?

[peyton randolph]

It will come to that here. We are well on our way now.

The MSM, the Hollyweird gang, and the chattering class in Georgetown, San Francisco, and Manhattan are dominated by pro-homo views. Other than that, the overwhelming majority of Americans either don't condone it or believe homos should STFU about it and keep it in the bedroom/closet rather than a public agenda.

The chances of being arrested in this country for speaking against homosexuality are nil and none. Unlike other countries, we have the First Amendment. Counting Alito, at least 6 members of the U.S. Supremes would never vote to uphold a law curtailing speech about homosexuality. If Ginsberg and Stephens are replaced in the next couple of years, you can increase that total to 8 (Souter will vote for his fellow pillow-biters all the time).

What are the odds of such a law being passed on a national level? Zip. Maybe 50 in the House and 10 in the Senate would support it...and then one would have to wait for a President Hillary to sign it ('09 or later). Assuming passed, the U.S. Supremes would promptly strike it down per above.

What about state laws? One could see a few blue states trying to pass such a law (California, Mass., Vermont, etc.). But public support in those states for civil unions/marriages as 'equal rights' is far different than public support for censuring/prosecuting heteros for speech. Doubtful such would pass...and if it did, the state laws would be stricken by the U.S. Supremes too on First Amendment grounds.

[ApplegateRanch]

They are sheep herders. Shepherds.

And they aren't gay, they're bisexual shepherds.

Proof: Their flock has both rams and ewes.

[doug from upland]

What a great way to give your husband a choice. "Dear, would you rather take me to see Steel Magnolias or Brokenbutt Mountain?"

[phoenix0468]

I have a natural aversion to many things that are unnatural or perverse. And with an immoral subplot in the fact that both are committing adultery while living this unnatural lifestyle.