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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.
By that reasoning, since I didn't vote for Al Sharpton, does that make me a racist?
I don't go to see teen slasher movies? What does THAT make me?
-PJ
No, Weinberg, you pathetic fruitloop, the straight guys are not the one with this problem.
Talk about being far removed from reality.
I don't know where you got that pic from, but the "guy" on the right resembles Macauley Culkin from "Home Alone" fame, doesn't he?
Here is a hint: a straight guy does not go to a homosexual film. Not at all. No more research is needed, it is just a fact.
So what these great men are saying is that no one should be offended by men who like to insert their sexual organ into a hole that is usually full of feces. Nah, that shouldn't offend anyone.
"How big a federal research grant did he need to come up with that?"
*Just who in our government funds grants to these mad researchers aiming at furthering their perverted agendas?
Everyone I know who has Logo just blocks it.
That's because it IS Macauley Culkin who is also a Neverland Alumnus. Hey, how clueless did his parents have to be when Michael Jackson asked them if Macauley could spend the weekend with him at the Neverland Ranch? The result of that weekend can be seen in the pic.
I really don't want to know what blows your skirt up, and I really don't want you to know what tickles my fancy. That's between me and my wife. I do, however, take offense to you screening your fantasies and calling me a Neanderthal because I'm not fascinated by YOUR stuff. If you need my approval that badly Hollywood, perhaps you should seek professional help.
Had a similar experience about getting tricked into seeing M. Butterfly. While the idea of a French guy not knowing the difference between male and female was pretty funny, that relationship didn't last long either.
I don't see to many movies anyway. Too much nonsense is put out these days. Now why the heck am I going to go out of my way to see gay shepherds in Brokeback Mountain? Am I under some kind of obligation to sample this dumb movie?
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He is looking a the third pic you posted!!!! Wow! I am happily married to a BEAUTIFUL woman ( and I really mean that, I still can't believe she threw her lot in with me), but I would be blind and dead not to acknowledged that that woman in the pic is just smokin' hot.
That said, the cake is WAY more than just the icing. The wrapping is pretty and flashy, but I bet no one in here is USING the wrapping paper under the tree from a week or so ago. I am fortunate to have a wife that is great to look at. After 27 years I can still make her blush by responding in truth to the queston "what are you thinking about?" with "You, naked."
That said, to "know" in the old KJV meaning of the word means that sex is just the first chapter of a GREAT book. Sodomy and casual heterosexual sex is like gorging on a big mac when there is filet available.
YAWN ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz .....................
Homohater and proud of it.
Sorry pal. They are cowboys. They wear cowboy hats, cpwboy boots and ride (besides each other) horses. They even go to rodeo's and ride broncs and bulls, cowboy stuff.
Real men don't say "askance". :^)
MMMMMMMMMMMMM.............thanks for the pic. I can print this one out! By the way folks, not all men have hairy backsides now do they?
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