Beastly love

Today I was watching the news when CNN's resident spitfire, Kyra Phillips, clued me in to the controversy surrounding Brokeback Mountain. I had to rub the gunk out of my eyes and do a double-take. Wicka-wicka-wha? Controversy? I haven't heard anything but subdued interest from arty folk and the occasional "Hey, it's actually a good movie so we'd like to give it some awards" type of pronouncements. I hadn't seen footage of oppressed Christians picketing in front of the local cineplex (most likely 'cause it ain't coming to your local cineplex, unless you have an arty art house theater in town; it's not even playing at our arty theater yet, and I don't know if it will) and I hadn't heard of any silly widespread boycotts of whatever evil company is trying to feed such Filth to the innocent American public.

But Kyra showed an interview with this silly "ex-gay" kook, who said Brokeback is just another insidious way for Hollywood to convince the American public that being gay is A-OK, and you should try it. And he's right. Every time I see a movie about gay cowboys, I want to have sex with cowboys. Oh wait. It didn't work after all! Hallelujah.

So CNN's just making shit up now, because one crazy ex-gay preacher does not a controversy make. I know, it's not surprising. But it's annoying and tiresome. And I'll tell you why.

No one cares.

Yes, it's true. I can't say a lot for my generation, but at least we're doing our best to slough off some of the traditionally accepted forms of bigotry imposed on us by generations past. Kids these days, for the most part, don't get all riled up over the notion of same-sex lovin' unless they've been repeatedly intructed from the day of their birth to do so by their parents. Gay people do exist (regardless of Hollywood's capacity to accurately depict fictional gay characters), they function and act just like Real Humans! and no one's the worse for it. Who cares? Not me. Not fans of tween shows like "Degrassi". Not these kids who tried to start a gay-straight alliance in their school. Et cetera.

I remember Andrew Sullivan writing something way back when about how it would have been unheard of just a few decades ago for two strapping young A-list actors to take on the roles of gay cowboys without being blacklisted in homophobic Hollywood. What does it say about our generation that two of the most popular hunky hetero actors would take on a project that would have killed their careers years ago? It says we've come quite a way. And regardless of whether it's art or life doing the imitating, it means we're getting somewhere.

But the real question floating among the chunks in this perceived controversy is this:

Where is the outrage over the unnatural emotional coupling of Ann Darrow and King Kong?

From Slate:

Ann's juggling doesn't assuage Kong's terminal loneliness. So, she lies beside him and they have a little snooze. He makes her feel so safe, so protected against all the T-Rexes and giant spiders and big sucking thingummies. When the heroic Driscoll appears to liberate her, she hesitates. How can he need her as much as Kong does?

That sounds to me like a most unnatural thing that should attract the ire of those advocating "traditional family values." A willowy blonde woman with a soft spot in her heart for a big hairy monkey? Somebody get Pat Robertson on the phone!