Brokeback Mountain Domino Effect
"You know, I'm not really the emancipated girl I try to be at all. I guess I just want a man to come home to me every night. I want to be able to sleep with a man without being afraid he's going to knock me up. Hell, I want to be knocked up, I want to start having babies. In a way, it's really all I'm good for. Is that what you want?"
"Yes, I've always wanted that."
And no matter what I was doing, another me sat in my belly, absolutely cold with terror over the question of my life...With this fearful intimation there opened in me a hatred for Giovanni which was as powerful as my love and which was nourished by the same roots...I was in a terrible confusion. Sometimes I thought, but this is your life. Stop fighting it. Stop fighting."
From James Baldwin, Giovanni's Room
The media seems to be on a binge of Brokeback Mountain even after Oscar's curtain is down. A Hong Kong newspaper deems a close friendship between two men a Borkback-style relationship. Yesterday the local paper estimates somewhere between 1.7 to 3.4 million women have married to men who harbor homosexual desire. These "Brokeback Mountain marriages" pervade all demographic and socioeconomic groups. These marriages could be for show or a refuge from discrimination. The movie Wedding Banquet (also directed by Ang Lee) comes to mind. Wai-Tung is the son of a rich Taiwanese family living in New York. Unknown to his family, he is gay and has lived with his American doctor boyfriend, Simon, for many years. His parents continuously pressure him to get married and have a child. At the same time, one of the tenants of the properties that Wai-Tung manages, Wei-wei, needs to get married to an American citizen to get a green card, or face deportation. Simon convinces Wai-Tung that both of these problems can be solved by a fictitious marriage, which would also allow for a nice tax break.
It's time to stop fighting the heart's fight. Just admit who you are.
"Yes, I've always wanted that."
And no matter what I was doing, another me sat in my belly, absolutely cold with terror over the question of my life...With this fearful intimation there opened in me a hatred for Giovanni which was as powerful as my love and which was nourished by the same roots...I was in a terrible confusion. Sometimes I thought, but this is your life. Stop fighting it. Stop fighting."
From James Baldwin, Giovanni's Room
The media seems to be on a binge of Brokeback Mountain even after Oscar's curtain is down. A Hong Kong newspaper deems a close friendship between two men a Borkback-style relationship. Yesterday the local paper estimates somewhere between 1.7 to 3.4 million women have married to men who harbor homosexual desire. These "Brokeback Mountain marriages" pervade all demographic and socioeconomic groups. These marriages could be for show or a refuge from discrimination. The movie Wedding Banquet (also directed by Ang Lee) comes to mind. Wai-Tung is the son of a rich Taiwanese family living in New York. Unknown to his family, he is gay and has lived with his American doctor boyfriend, Simon, for many years. His parents continuously pressure him to get married and have a child. At the same time, one of the tenants of the properties that Wai-Tung manages, Wei-wei, needs to get married to an American citizen to get a green card, or face deportation. Simon convinces Wai-Tung that both of these problems can be solved by a fictitious marriage, which would also allow for a nice tax break.
It's time to stop fighting the heart's fight. Just admit who you are.
3 Comments:
I will definitely have to check out The Wedding Banquet.
I agree - it would be nice if people followed their hearts. I don't think it's fair to marry someone but not harbor the same feelings that they do for you. You cheat yourself out of real love as well as your spouse, not giving them the opportunity to find happiness with someone who will love & desire them equally.
Hopefully Brokeback will give some courage to the guys to come out of their closet...since everyone is talking about it. But I'm also fed up with how some guys, like David in Giovanni's Room, who puts up with this pretext of being confused and not wants to face who he really is. I think it's a bliss to be loved by someone, why not just surrender to the love and give it a try?
Movie production houses try to capitalize on the hype of Brokback Mountain. But I bet this trend won't sustain as the summer blockbusters will never be a film on this subject. On the other hand, a friend of mine mentioned if there would ever be a chance to do a motion picture of Giovanni's Room....
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