We're the Bareback Rider Cowboys of the Neverland Ranch.
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.
Nope! "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" is proof of that. I would wager tho that if it had been produced today and not 11 years ago, it would have probably received rave reviews too.............FWIW, it stunk!
Great post!
Frankly, its none of my business what people do behind closed doors. But if your gonna make a movie about two bi-sexual or homosexual men falling in love and engaging in degenerate activites, I don't find that the least bit entertaining and I'd venture a guess, neither does most Americans.
It's a chick flick? PLEASE! It makes me ill saying the name of the movie....I couldn't even THINK about seeing it.
So right! The perjorative `homophobe' is a cacophonic clash of cognate and slang. If the original Greek `homo' means `the same' and Greek `phobos' means `fear', then
As a `homophobe', I have an irrational hatred and fear of other straight heterosexual conservative Republican gun owners who serve in the military.
Don't make much sense, do it?
This movie is Hollyweird indicting itself.
"Society and the Healthy Homosexual." There's nothing "healthy" about being homosexual!
It's not fear, it's revulsion - it's wrong to be a sodomite. Homosexuality is a bad choice. People are right to avoid it.
please, there are men i love, would kill for and even die for... BUT, that's as far as it goes.
Hmmm Lemme think
Or a man's hairy butt ?
Or a man's hairy butt ?
There is just no Justification for even having to look at a man's hairy butt ! when you have these kind of women on Gods green earth how could a man even put another man in the same column if they are born homosexual then they must be born sick ! if they choose to be homosexual then they are not only sick they are dangerous to society and themselves !
What has happened to the red blooded male ? he's alive and well and hiding somewhere in the barn with a pitchfork and a blayboy bunny he sure as hell isn't dreaming about Homosexual Cowboy's .
When you find it, would you please ping me? I don't have a Latin dictionary, but that is a great idea!
Whenever you go to see a movie, you are PAYING the Democrat/Socialist/Communist alliance. Just say no! :)
"It's NOT a chick flick. Your circle of women friends must all be raging liberals."
I don't know anybody who has seen it - I was referring to the reviews and demographics.
We express distate for it, and some nimrod psychologist comes out and tells us it is because we are secret pervs, or wish we were, or fantasize about it, or whatever the hell that "study" said. We ignore a movie that might as well have "AGENDA" stamped in pink letters across every advert, and some "deep thinker" feels compelled to shove it in our faces asking us "why don't you LIKE it.... it is cause you secretly fantasize that you might be a pole smoker. RIGHT?????"
Actually, they are past disgusting, revolting, and abhorrent. Now they just bore me and I wish they would go buggar themselves, shut up, and leave me alone about it. Crap, they can have their movie if they want. Just don't expect me to wax raphsodic about it and weep and moan about the "breathtaking complexity of tragic lost hope and forlorn love as two stalwart heroes are stuck between love and expectations, self actualization and expectations, bliss and burning shame.... blah blah blah." Pervs are pervs, and putting it against stunning Calgary Alberta scenery and a thrilling musical score just makes it perversion against a pretty background. Propaganda can be moving, you know. In fact propaganda is designed to bypass the intellect and hit the viewer emotionally.
Yes - they're called Public Schools
Well, some guys might like watching lesbos go at it, I for one, don't. Especially if it would be framed like this movie, with two women trashing their families and betraying their mates the way the sheep F***ers on Brokeback are supposed to do. This whole article is BS, it doesn't take a genius to figure out why straight men, and women, don't want to watch gays on screen. This is just another attempt to portray queers as natural but straights as evil and unnatural.
Seen the commercial? I get the dry heaves everytime I hear, "I wish I knew how to quit you." Yuck!!!!
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