The Issue of Homosexuality in Brokeback Mountain - Essay Example

Homosexuality in “Brokeback Mountain” Identity politics refers to the political activity undertaken by a particular social group with the ultimate objective being the right to self determination. It is in effect the development of a social identity for a particular group, which helps them to challenge the dominant stereotypes that exist in society. Identity politics is geared towards not merely establishing the social identity of a particular group but in carrying them forward towards the achievement of political rights based upon the recognition of that identity and the collective oppression from society that is felt by the members of that particular group. According to Sonia Kruks: ‘What makes identity politics a significant departure from earlier, pre-identarian forms of the politics of recognition is its demand for recognition on the basis of the very grounds on which recognition has previously been denied:……the demand is not for inclusion within the fold of “universal humankind” on the basis of shared human attributes; nor is it for respect “in spite of” ones differences. Rather, what is demanded is respect for oneself as different (Kruks 85). The film “Brokeback Mountain” deals with the issue of homosexuality, which in itself challenges the traditional notions that sexuality provides a basis for a core identity that has produced the dominant stereotypes of male and female. It is the story of the homosexual relationship between Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist, and the major thrust of the story is the difficulty that Ennis faces in coming to terms with his own identity, because it is not one that is acceptable in society. While he was a young boy, two old homosexual men living together had been the joke of the town, inspite of the fact that they were “tough old birds” and they had been found cruelly beaten to death. For Ennis, this childhood memory is an inescapable part of his reluctance to accept his own gender identity as a homosexual man, while Jack Twist is more self aware and self accepting of his identity. The reasons for Ennis’ struggle to accept his true identity are the direct result of social conditioning, that has circumscribed the boundaries of his male identify to the acceptable heterosexual norms of society. Throughout the story he struggles with the conflict generated by the reality of his identity, the struggle between his own feelings and the need to deny them and hide them away out of fear of an non accepting society and the lack of conforming models reflecting his own homosexual identify among the society he moves around in. Analysis: Michael Foucault offers the view that “homosexuality appeared as one of the forms of sexuality when it was transposed from the practice of sodomy onto a kind of interior androgyny, a hermaphrodism of the soul.” (Foucault 43). This suggests that homosexuality emerged as a permanent phenomenon in society as a result of its transposition from something else. This kind of homosexual identity therefore evolves as a result of the situation into which a man is placed, for example military schools, monasteries and prisons, and his need to be “truly and deeply understood” which is one of the most “powerful needs” of the human individual (Tejirian xvii). The film “Brokeback Mountain” demonstrates how two men placed in a situation where they are alone together on a lonely mountainside, find themselves experiencing inappropriate feelings for each other through their shared closeness. Ennis is a lonely individual of few words, who for the first time is able to establish a connection with Jack. According to Tejirian, there is an external boundary that is drawn between individuals depending upon the norms prevalent in society while there also exists an inner boundary within each individual that conditions his actual identity. Therefore the development of the homosexual identity as it occurs in the case of Ennis and Jack results in a conflict between the external boundary that determines their heterosexual identity vis a vis the conflicting inner boundaries. As a result, Ennis is alarmed by the force of his inner feelings when society has conditioned him to conform to a heterosexual identity in which sexual attraction for another man contravenes the notion of masculinity. Ennis comes from a rural farm background, where homosexuality is unacceptable. As Sandilands points out, visible gay male culture has tended to publicize the predominantly urban male who is purposely artificial in the way he looks, dresses, walks and conducts himself, while rural culture is more conservative and heterosexual.(Sandilands 30) As a result, Ennis is forced to question his own male identity, and the consciousness that his feelings for Jack make him different from the quintessential rural American male, so that in his pain he bursts out at Jack, “Why don’t you let me be? It’s because of you Jack that I’m like this – nothing and nobody.” (Ebert 2005). Ennis is unable to accept his own identity, because it does not conform to the core gender identity that has been mandated by the rural society he grew up in, where homosexual connotations allude to drag queens, challenging a man’s sense of his maleness. Tejirian states that “masculine identification – both as a core gender identity and as value placed on one’s own sense of maleness – is characteristic of the great majority of gay as well as heterosexual men….but the stereotypes about heterosexual men help to perpetuate those about gay men.” (Tejirian 121). Moreover, the perception of gay males also tends to the belief that they are only interested in sex, because the movement started out as the right for males to have sex with one another.(Bronski 23). As a result, the gay movement has also been stigmatized by the Church, since it was essentially concerned with the rights to gay behavior, while it is only recently that the gay community is fighting for the right to their identity as homosexuals. (Bronski 23). The struggle that Ennis faces is not only due to the unfavorable perception of his rural society that gays are only interested in sex, but also the forbidden nature of such sexual activity on religious grounds. Above all, is the constant mental image in his mind of the two tough homosexual men of his childhood who had been beaten to death because they had dared to openly acknowledge their gender identity. He tells Jack how his father took him to see the dead men – “My Dad, he made sure me and my brother saw it. For all I know, he did it.” It is this fear that is a constant part of Ennis’ struggle and the reason for his ambiguity about his sexual identity – as he tells Jack, “This thing gets hold of us at the wrong time and the wrong place and we’re dead.”(Ebert 2005). He is deeply conscious that homosexuality is forbidden ground, untenable in terms of his own masculine identity, untenable in terms of the borders of masculinity prescribed by society and untenable from a religious point of view. Underlying it all is the fear of what will happen if he is discovered and the reluctance to face up to or accept the conflicting nature of his own inner identity which contravenes traditional male identity. Devoll and Blazina have argued that it is the lack of an appropriate social model that exists for the gay man that is the cause of the identity conflicts that arise in their case and the difficulties gay man have in facing up to the reality of their sexual orientation.(DeVoll and Blazina 29). A homophobic society unleashes terror and violence upon gay men who do not conform to the traditional notions of heterosexuality and no effective model exists that can serve as a universal archetype that conditions “appropriate” behavior, as is the case with other groups as postulated under Jung’s theory of individuation.(Devoll and Blazine 29). Ennis and Jack belonged to an era when there was no acceptable universal archetype for the gay male and it is only in recent times that homosexual identity politics is slowly fighting for the political rights of the gay male to exist in his own identity without fear. Thus, the lack of acceptable models only makes his own identity even more intolerable to Ennis, who has faced loneliness and persecution all his life and is not anxious to endure more by facing up to the realities of his own identify as a homosexual. Conclusion: The film “Brokeback Mountain” is a reflection of the struggle faced by its characters to conform to traditional gender identities imposed by society, while identity politics mandates the struggle for self determination and the need to accept one’s identity as it exists rather than as imposed by society. The character of Jack twist is more self aware and able to accept his real gender identity, while Ennis is tormented by the need to conform to society’s imposition of gender identity and is unable to accept his identity right up to the every end of the film. References: * Bronski, Michael, 1995. Sexual liberation versus Identity politics: Whither the gay liberation front The Harvard Gay and Lesbian review, 2(1), pp 23. * DeVoll, Michael G and Blazina, Christopher, 2002. Jungian templates for contemporary gay men; Or “What does Mary want with that Bear and what’s the Diva fishing?” Journal of Men’s Studies, 11(1), pp 29 * Foucault, Michael, 1980. The History of Sexuality New York: Vintage * Kruks, Sonia. 2000. Retrieving Experience: Subjectivity and Recognition in Feminist Politics. New York: Cornell University Press. * Sandilands, Catriona, 2001. From unnatural passions to queer nature Alternatives Journal, 27(3), pp 30. * Tejirian, Edward, 2000. Male to male: Sexual Feelings across the boundaries of identity. New York: Harrington Park Press Read More