Sex and Sexuality...in Brokeback Mountain

[queen_of_kithia]

I actually don't have a lot to say on this subject since it's been obsessed over by so many people before me. I mean, it's obviously important to the story, but so many people have made it up into the end-all and be-all of what the movie is about, and that's not fair and I don't want to do it. But I do have a few thoughts to share, and what I was

Comments

[eofs]

A random question. Please try not to be offended by it. I know it's a little blunt, but that's mostly because I'm not sure how better to word it.

Is it heterosexual sex scenes that you find uncomfortable? Or have you seen enough homosexual sex scenes to conclude that you have the same reaction to them?

And re: In that respect, I guess, the hotness of the actors detracts somewhat from the effectiveness of the film, which is really a shame actually because they obviously put a lot of work into this movie and their acting really is quite superb. Poor things, they can't help it that they happen to be beautiful.

The film-makers can help it. They chose to cast extremely attractive men (uh, to most - I can't see the appeal in them) and they chose to make-up, costume, light and shoot them in such a way to make them continue to appear attractive. Hollywood could certainly do with a few more actors whose faces are less pretty and more interesting.

[queen_of_kithia]

Well, it's not entirely true that they chose to costume, make-up, light, and shoot them to make them look attractive, because as the film continues and they age over the course of 20 years, they get considerably more weathered-looking, which is not necessarily making them unattractive, but neither is it showing them at their best. So yeah, they probably made them look a little better at the beginning so as to highlight the contrast

[queen_of_kithia]

i.e. full-frontal nudity will probably make me uncomfortable

Let me revise that; nudity in general pretty much will make me uncomfortable. I don't like seeing naked butts, breasts, or genitals. I'm made uncomfortable by seeing men nude from the waist down, and I'm made uncomfortable by seeing women nude...at all. Nudity bugs me. I don't know why. And I have no idea why naked female breasts should bother me but naked male pectorals shouldn't; but that's the way it is. Anyway, and that's part of the reason why male-female sex scenes make me uncomfortable is because they almost always show naked breasts.

[eofs]

I think that here we probably share a lot in common. Except my scale of comfort with sex scenes would probably run in the opposite direction. Well, aside from the fact that any sex scene makes me unspeakably uncomfortable. Man was seeing The Dreamers a mistake...

(I don't really have much response to the other parts. I was more trying to provoke thought in you than having much to contribute myself. Because it really is hard to discuss stuff like that without having seen the film.)

[deceptica]

That comparison between the Brokeback and Titanic posters! *squee*

I agree that it's unnecessary to pigeonhole the main characters into specific sexual categories. I mean, if you asked me to place them on a spectrum, I would actually consider Jack more bisexual than Ennis simply because he seemed to have somewhat more fun with the women he was involved with than Ennis. However, in the end that's not what's important - what's important is that the one person he really wanted was Ennis. How both of them felt about men or women in general really wasn't the point

[queen_of_kithia]

Grr...I want to respond to this and I can't find the damn words!

Okay, I'll put it this way and see if it makes any sense: I find it easier to interpolate myself into a sex scene if there are no female participants, because if there are, I find them to be a distraction because I feel like I'm in competition with them rather than "relating" to them.

And that's all I have to say about that for now, because now I have to go to sleep.