Posted on 01/05/2006 4:21:21 PM PST by Incorrigible
BY DRU SEFTON
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, Calif., 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.
An excerpt from the column: "The good news -- there's less than one minute of making out. It's about 130 minutes long and 129 of them are about Men Not Having Sex."
We're not talking here about rejections of homosexuality based on moral or religious grounds, though the film has provoked its share of those. It's that some men who pointedly won't see "Brokeback" are social liberals who generally find no fault with people being gay.
"I didn't write the piece with the homophobe in mind," said White, a Movie.com reviewer in Los Angeles who wrote the column for MSNBC.com. "I wrote it for the liberal guy who just can't see this movie, because they know that reads as socially uncool."
White's theory on straight-male queasiness centers on self-identification. "These characters are too close to being regular guys," he said. "That's part of the freakout."
Timothy Shary also noticed that. He's director of the Screen Studies Program at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., and examines masculinity in movies.
"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 to "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."'
Research into a physical source of these feelings is lacking.
"It does seem to be almost culturally universal that heterosexual men can have a deep repulsion to overt homosexuality," said Dean Hamer, scientist and author of "The Science of Desire: The Gay Gene and the Biology of Behavior."
"But there is no study I know of to ascertain whether this is a biologically based trait," Hamer said.
Simon LeVay agreed. He is a lecturer on neuroscience and author of "The Sexual Brain," a biological overview of sexuality.
"From a neurobiological basis, I just don't think this response has been researched at that level," LeVay said, "although it's something that should be."
Movie buff Hargreaves, who is straight and married, still isn't going to see "Brokeback Mountain." Not that there's anything wrong with that.
"To say that straight guys are missing out because they're unjustly turned off by the plot, well, there wasn't anything to turn them on in the first place," Hargreaves said. "At least `The English Patient' had a plane crash."
Jan. 5, 2006
(Dru Sefton can be contacted at dru.sefton@newhouse.com)
Not for commercial use. For educational and discussion purposes only.
Chronic Winner should be your name -- what a GREAT POST!!!!! On a GREAT THREAD!!!! Your wife chose a winner.
Wait a sec. If "heterosexuality" is a "sexual orientation," then heteosexuals SHOULD find homosexual sex revolting, right? Except for the guys in jail who have to pretend they are doing it with a woman.
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Actually the Atlanta paper and many others have labeld Brokeback as a major chick flick.
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Geeez, That makes me hate women.
OH CRAP!!! They got me!
We are called Homophobes because We find it disgusting to not want to make beautiful Love the way GOD intended between two Wonderfully created sexes. Gays aren't Gay, they are Deviants, it's not something a normal person even thinks about. GOD BLESS the Normal People that We are and as the French beautifully express " Viva la Difference!"
"What?!"
Defining deviancy down. What's next, re-education camps?
What do you mean? Our entire leftist Western culture is now a Re-education Camp.
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The lesbian I work with saw it with her lesbian crowd -- they all loved it. I'm thinking the movie appeals to lesbians chicks NOT straight chicks. As I'm a straight female originally from cowboy country, I have NO desire to see the image of cowboys desecrated.
So, by the manipulation of language, deviants became "normal," and normal people who are repulsed by homosexual acts became "sick."
It is no more intellectual to call someone a "homophobe" than it is for kids to taunt others with names such as, sissy, scaredycat, etc.
The intent is to get the recipient to claim, "Am not!" And then coerce them to 'prove' they are not.
Very adolescent behavior as far as I see it.
Ok.....once again.
Cow....
Boy....
Cowboy.
Why don't they get it?
These are just sheepherders.
Only if they're of the "lipstick" variety ;)
There was a Monty Python skit about a man who went to an employment agency because he wanted to be a lion tamer:
"Hmmmmmmm. I see. Do you have any qualifications for that job?"
"I have a hat!"
My husband asked me what all the fuss was about this movie - he really has no interest these days in current movies. So I told him what I know - it's a story about two gay cowboys or sheepherders or whatever. I had to laugh at his reponse which was "Dear God - is anyone going to see this movie?"
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