The Brokeback Mountain Controversy
Occasionally, I go out for a night on the town with some guy friends, and we do guy things. We see "Wedding Crashers" and "Sideways." We play tennis. We drink beer and eat cheeseburgers. We jokingly call the outings "man-dates," which is a term that the New York Times Sunday Styles section applied to straight men doing things together. Whatever.
All was bliss, until the other day one of my "posse," as it were (though there is no Leo DiCaprio figure in this group) suggested that we see "Brokeback Mountain," the film about two gay cowboys. And I put my foot down: No way, I said. Not appropriate for a mandate.
(Which is, by definition, not actually a date. If you follow me.)
Does that make me a bigot?
That's exactly the question that Mickey Kaus asks in his Slate blog. (Thanks, Mickey. Especially because you answer "no.")
Mickey's thesis: "My wild hypothesis is that more people will go see a movie if it features an actor or actress they find attractive! If heterosexual men in heartland America don't flock to see Brokeback Mountain it's not because they're bigoted. It's because they're heterosexual."
Whew.
Of course, that doesn't explain why I'd be perfectly fine seeing the movie with a she-date (i.e., a woman).....
But since David Leavitt doesn't even think that Brokeback Mountain is a "gay movie"—and he's gay!—then I'm even more confused.
