All of the movies these days are about the gay except for Lord of the Rings. Sam and Frodo? What about them? What?
But you really should go read the whole thing if only for the palpable fear of sex that races through it.
"Don Quixote had his windmills /Ponce de Leon took his cruise
Took Sinbad seven voyages /To see that it was all a ruse
(That's why I'm) Looking for the next best thing"
- Warren Zevon
Friday, 13 January 2006
I Can't Believe It's Not A Parody
Tying up this weeks themes, Movies and the Liberal Media, comes an article by Ben Shapiro in the Townhall called"Why I'm skipping the Oscars this year". TBogg has a shorter version that goes:
But you really should go read the whole thing if only for the palpable fear of sex that races through it.
But you really should go read the whole thing if only for the palpable fear of sex that races through it.
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2 comments:
I can't remember when I last bothered to watch the Oscars. Though the thing that always puts me off is all those wooden celebs making such hard work of reading an autocue. They're actors for goodness sake. You'd at least think that they could sound sincere.
Anyway, on to the serious bit.
When I read Ben's article the following bit struck me as the salient part:
"The critics love it, mostly because critics love anything that pushes homosexuality as normal behavior."
Ben's whole critique hangs on the term "normal behaviour". In order to protect his own masculine identity he has to assert the otherness of homosexuality. He is normal, gays are not. Anything that challanges that perspective must therefore be shot down or run away from. A film like Brokeback Mountain must therefore be of particular concern to young Ben. Imagine, the thought of cowboys, the ultimate symbol of American manliness, playing hide the branding iron. It must shake the moral certitudes of the right-wing conservative to the very core. It's hardly surprising that Ben finds this subject matter "stomach churning".
I could get irritated with this perspective, in fact I frequently do, but today I choose simply to pity poor Mr Shapiro. If he spent some time getting to know a few abnormal people, he might find his life enriched.
By the way, Paul, I've just skimmed through yesterday's Guardian. Did you realise that you're gay-adjacent? Congratulations.....I think.
Althought I like the phrase 'hide the branding iron,' in the film they mention 'stemming a rose.' Unless I misheard it. What can it all mean?
On another point - Americans in particular, but also other right wing media, are always moaning about the leftist agenda of Hollywood and other creative media. I think they are probably right - if viewed from the skewed perspective of what Americans perceive as 'left.' Surely, though, if anything this proves the point made by Frank Zappa - that if art really changed anything then we'd all love each other, as most pop songs are about love (I'm paraphrasing - but I think you get the gist.)
I realise that the argument in the article is that these films are being heralded despite being unsuccessful. The implication here then is, presumably, that most of the successful films in America are thinly veiled right wing propaganda - something I've suspected for a while.
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