WHAT if they held a culture war and no one fired a shot? That's the pellg tale of ''Brokeback Mounta.'' Here is a heavily promoted Amerin movie pictg two men havg sex -- the precise sex act that was still a crime some stat until the Supreme Court stck down sodomy laws jt two and a half years ago -- but there is no ntroversy, no Fox News tar and featherg, no roar om the relig right. ''Brokeback Mounta'' has stead bee the unlikely Osr favore, propelled by s biastal sweep of crics' awards, by s unexpected domance of the far ls highfalut Goln Glob and, perhaps most of all, by the lure of a gold sh. Last weekend opened to the hight per-screen average of any movie this year. Those screens were New York, Los Angel and San Francis -- hardly natnal bellwethers. But I'll rashly predict that the big Hollywood qutn posed on the ont page of The Los Angel Tim after those stunng weekend gross -- ''Can 'Brokeback Mounta' Move the Heartland?'' -- will be answered wh a roundg y. All the signs of a naway phenomenon are prent, om an stant parody on ''Saturday Night Live'' to the report that a multiplex Plano, Tex., sold more advance tickets for the so-lled ''gay wboy picture'' than for ''Kg Kong.'' ''The culture is fdg ,'' Jam Scham, the ''Brokeback Mounta'' producer, told USA Today. ''Grown-up movi have never had that kd of per-screen average. You only get those numbers when you're vacuumg up enormo tert om all walks of life.''
Contents:
- THE REAL GAY WBOYS
- GAY COWBOYS? SURE, PARDNER.
- TWO GAY COWBOYS H A HOME RUN
- THE DALLAS COWBOYS’ LONG GAY & BI HISTORY: 3 OUT ATHLET, SOME GLORY HOLE, A GAY DATG SE & MORE
- GAY WBOYS? ‘POWER OF THE DOG’ DO NOT STAND ALONE GOG THERE
- GAY COWBOY
THE REAL GAY WBOYS
* the 2 gay cowboys *
Ask anyone who’s seen Brokeback Mounta (2005) to characterize the film three words, and you’re almost certa to hear some variatn of “gay wboy love-story. Detractors, largely spearhead by right-wg and relig groups, quickly and fervently emed the film’s pictn of a homosexual uple immoral, evince of an attempt to femize men, and even anti-Amerin. In many s, crics honed on the two leads ’ occupatns as wboys, challengg the existence of a “gay wboy” Amerin history.
” Other crics acced filmmakers of phg an “agenda” onto Amerins, wh one wrg that “Hollywood screenwrers and producers thk that ’s their duty to teach Ameri that homosexual nduct and cross-drsg are normal behavrs that should be affirmed Amerin culture. The beliefs, though objectively bafflg, beg tertg qutns: Was homosexualy ever accepted Ameri’s past? Supported by sendary sourc, I will argue that this myth is rooted homoerotic relatnships, a reflectn of historil fact.
GAY COWBOYS? SURE, PARDNER.
In light of this ntentn, I will explore the reali of homosexualy and homosocialy amongst wboys the Old Wt, argug that they were accepted and monplace.
” While Cooper do not tail explic sex between the two, their relatnship is unmistakably homosocial. In this way, Cooper has embedd an acknowledgement of same-sex love the very heart of Amerin myth, directly ntrastg claims that homosexualy is an unnatural and/or morn ventn. Furthermore, the homosocialy scribed Cooper’s work is not purely imagative, but actually reflective of historil rerds ditg the prence of homoerotic relatnships among wboys the ontier wt, keepg wh Cooper’s assertn that the stori were spired by tal he had been told by actual wboys.
“Homoerotic iendships prerve privilege and ensure survival a hostile wilrns” (Packard 15). Homosexualy was an act, not an orientatn.
TWO GAY COWBOYS H A HOME RUN
This is also nsistent wh fdgs like those Aled Ksey’s notor 1948 study, Sexual Behavr the Human Male, which reported the hight equenci of homosexual timacy to be among men ral farmg muni; probably, Ksey nclud, much like their pneer forebearers the ontier wt. Ined, Ksey’s ntentn reflects primary source material ditg homosexual relatnships among ontier wboys. One such source, a limerick that allus to homosexual timacy between wboys, was found by historian Clifford Wtermeier and published his 1976 say “The Cowboy and Sex.
This suggts not only the prence of homosexual timacy the ontier wt, but also a greater culture of sexual ambiguy. Historilly, the wboy was able to engage homosexual sex while matag his masculy and stat. Homosocialy was re to muny wboy culture, allowg men to nnect wh others whout societal retributn (Packard 3, 7).
The term “sexual vert” was veloped to refer to the people and was ed terchangeably wh “homosexual” (Boag 5). Concurrently, the ncept of “sexual versn/homosexualy” evolved direct ntrast to “heterosexualy.
THE DALLAS COWBOYS’ LONG GAY & BI HISTORY: 3 OUT ATHLET, SOME GLORY HOLE, A GAY DATG SE & MORE
” From the start, homosexualy was fed as nately “unnatural, ” and therefore sexually viant. Moreover, the e of “sexual vert, ” homosexualy beme herently lked to effemacy.
As Peter Boag explas, “to intify a homoerotic re s myth about the supremacy of whe Amerin masculy is to imply that Amerin dienc want their ontiersman to practice nonnormative sir as part of their rol natn-buildg” (12).
GAY WBOYS? ‘POWER OF THE DOG’ DO NOT STAND ALONE GOG THERE
In other words, if there is somethg natnal about the wboy and if there is somethg homoerotic about the partnerships he forms the wilrns, then there is somethg homoerotic about Amerin natnal inty. This would be somethg seemgly ntradictory to the rercement of homosexualy as Other and anathema to the Amerin/mascule ials the wboy was supposed to reprent.
GAY COWBOY
In forcg the dience to regnize a eper nnectn between the two protagonists, one that may reflect feelgs held by many other Amerin men, the dience is pelled to acknowledge the artificial boundary between homosocial and homoerotic that is imposed by homophobia and rerced by the Hollywood Cowboy. As Eric Patterson ncurs, “By lotg love between men wh the inographic system of landspe, clothg, and activi that are fundamental to the Wtern, Brokeback Mounta oblig rears and dienc to beg to regnize how the Amerin natnal fantasy of Wtern adventure and particularly the ialized wboy hero have distorted history and endorsed a homophobic nstctn of masculy” (117).