When I was little, I can remember there being
a skit on MadTV that involved two 'heterosexual' men watching football. They were both very involved in the game, and whenever their team made a point, they went wild. At one point, they just started making out, and the audience laughed. My sister laughed, too. I didn't; I thought it was love at the time. In our society, and in other society's in the past, same-sex attraction has been seen as a threat to the norm(Two men cannot produce a child, two women cannot 'properly' consummate a marriage, etc.). Since this has been a problem for an ongoing period of time, there's only one way for homosexuality to be seen as 'acceptable' in the eyes of the heteronormative public: as a punchline in a homophobic joke. For example, in 'Twelfth Night', the situation Viola is in is comedic, rather than tragic. Most people see it as, 'oh, how funny! Olivia, a woman, loves Cesario, who is actually another woman! How funny!' I see this situation as tragic. Olivia has fallen for someone she can never have, both by law and Viola's wishes. I feel as if Shakespeare is using this 'joke' to get people to understand homosexual attraction, but they just don't get it. Nowadays, homosexuality is used as a punchline in too many heteronormative comedies. In the Kevin Hart movie that I refuse to look up because I do not want it to have any more attention than it deserves, he pretends to be the best man at a guy's wedding. In a scene, Kevin teaches the guy to ballroom dance, but they end up doing the Douggie instead. An older woman watching says to her friend, 'Oh, those gays are just so talented.' This is degrading to me as a homosexual man. It's a stereotype that is overused first of all and it's boiling down my sexuality to a joke. All in all, I'm just ranting about a problem that probably doesn't exist and I'm over it.
Luke! I was totally agreeing with everything you said up until the last line, "I'm just ranting about a problem that probably doesn't exist and I'm over it." No friend, this does exist and I'm as mad about it as you are. Look at She's the Man. When Malvolio the tarantula is in Duke and Sebastian's room they're jumping up and down on the bed hugging and screaming, but when they realize they're hugging they separate and scream even louder. Is the director making a subtle statement about the fluidity of gender and sexuality because Sebastian, who is really Viola, is in love with Duke and is finally touching him but needs to conform to society's heterosexual norms to fit in her disguise? No. It's a homophobic punch line. You could almost make a Bechdel test for it: Are two men creating homosocial behavior without a homophobic joke? Probably not.
ReplyDeleteI agree too, that this is definitely something that's going on and has been going on but I do think that it's something that should also stop. What makes homosexual/homosocial interactions or attractions so funny? I personally don't see it. Even when it isn't used as a punchline, I feel like it's made into one. Brokeback Mountain for instance, not a comedy but the homosexual undertones found in parts of the movie have been warped repeatedly into references that are used as insults or jokes outside of the context of the film. I'm really not sure why this trend is and has been happening, but I agree with you (and Ellen's comment too).
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