Milk: Do you have trouble watching men kissing men in movies?

[arob]

Five minutes into the film there's a love scene that's hard for heterosexual men to watch, but after that you forget Sean Penn is playing Harvey Milk and the character really comes alive on screen. You root for him in the political rallies, feel sorry for him, and celebrate when he finally wins the election

Milk is probably going to win a smattering of Academy Awards because of the subject matter - Harvey Milk was a Gay Rights activist in San Francisco in the 1970s. One year after being elected to office (the first openly gay politician to ever be elected to public office in the United States) he ran into some serious trouble with another councilor promoting old fashion family values. In this movie Josh Brolin does another great job as the lunatic Dan White, but Sean Penn is absolutely frigging amazing as Harvey Milk.

Directed by Gus Van Sant, the biopic was no doubt inspired by the success of The Life and Times of Harvey Milk, an Academy Award winning documentary on the same subject. Milk stars Sean Penn, James Franco, Emile Hirsch, Diego Luna and Josh Brolin.



Is this something you'll watch in the theatre? or on DVD? or not at all?

 

[scratch]

Five minutes into the film there's a love scene that's hard for heterosexual men to watch, but after that you forget Sean Penn is playing Harvey Milk and the character really comes alive on screen. You root for him in the political rallies, feel sorry for him, and celebrate when he finally wins the election

Milk is probably going to win a smattering of Academy Awards because of the subject matter - Harvey Milk was a Gay Rights activist in San Francisco in the 1970s. One year after being elected to office (the first openly gay politician to ever be elected to public office in the United States) he ran into some serious trouble with another councilor promoting old fashion family values. In this movie Josh Brolin does another great job as the lunatic Dan White, but Sean Penn is absolutely frigging amazing as Harvey Milk.

Directed by Gus Van Sant, the biopic was no doubt inspired by the success of The Life and Times of Harvey Milk, an Academy Award winning documentary on the same subject. Milk stars Sean Penn, James Franco, Emile Hirsch, Diego Luna and Josh Brolin.



Is this something you'll watch in the theatre? or on DVD? or not at all?

Penn is an absolutely fantastic actor. I would watch it.

 

[s_lone]

My brother is gay and I feel concerned by anything that has to do with gay rights. I will end up seeing the movie, and no, I will not have trouble watching men kiss. Big deal...:roll:

 

[scratch]

My brother is gay and I feel concerned by anything that has to do with gay rights. I will end up seeing the movie, and no, I will not have trouble watching men kiss. Big deal...:roll:

G'Day s_lone,

Double`that Big deal!`

regs,
scratch

 

[SirJosephPorter]

Each era, each period has morality, traditions that people in another era find difficult to comprehend.

Thus in old days, it was considered the duty of the man to be polite to the woman, he was supposed to open the doors for her, refer to her (other than his wife, of course) as ma’am etc. However, it was perfectly permissible, indeed, it was mandatory that women be denied equal opportunities in education, employment etc. It was perfectly OK to deny the women the vote or for a man to beat his wife (the rule of thumb).

Thus, a man may see a woman struggling with packages, he would be solicitous towards her, help her with the packages. Then he goes to his job as the Dean of Admission at a university. He sees an application to medicine, law or engineering by the same woman. He throws it in the trash without looking at it.

This was the morality of old days; we find it difficult to understand. Similarly, people 50 or 100 years into the future will find it difficult to understand the morality of our age. We think it is OK for one man to kill another man on TV, in the news or in the movies. But not OK for one man to kiss another man, that is a big taboo.

 

[missile]

Like the old song goes..a kiss is just a kiss

 

[Nuggler]

8O Long as I'm not the ........."kissee"......??, I don't give just one poop.

or even two.

 

[scratch]

Yo Nugg,

Big bux in it......well?

scratch

 

[Nuggler]

Yo Nugg,

Big bux in it......well?

scratch

Nope, I made my money with my feet, not with my ass. Will/would pass.

:lol:

 

[hermanntrude]

i'd do pretty much anything for $10,000,000

 

[scratch]

Fair enough.
But not even a hug, Nug?

 

[karrie]

I'm all for gay rights. I have lots of gay friends. I think gay displays of affection in a movie should be no big deal. But, it does still make me uncomfortable to see it.... programming I guess. But, that discomfort is my own, and not something I'm about to shove on someone else, or even something I'd let get in my way of seeing a good movie. But, pure honesty, there is something that goes 'yipes' when I see too much male affection.

 

[scratch]

....and female (one on one ) affection?

 

[karrie]

....and female (one on one ) affection?

Not the same issue with me. Again though, societal norms almost glorify women together (so long as they're not too 'manly).

 

[scratch]

karrie `not too manly` means what?

 

[Scott Free]

I could care less who and what people do but I do find the notion of sex with a male extremely revolting. I have a physical reaction to it and seeing men kiss will bring that on. I simply don't look. I have no problem with it in any way except to watch it makes me sick.

I am also lactose intolerant, it makes me ill to drink milk or even think about it. I have no objection to people drinking milk, I don't try and stop it nor do I think there is anything wrong with it.

That is how I am with homosexual displays of affection in that it gives me a revolted feeling. My solution is to not watch.

 

[#juan]

For some reason homosexual behavior among women doesn't bother me as much as the same behavior among men. I'm afraid my attitude about homosexuality is not nearly as liberal as it might be. A group that makes up something around five percent of the adult population cannot be normal. While it is normal to expect that five percent of the population will be homosexual, "Normal" is the other ninety five percent. My age is no doubt a factor in my attitude, but hey, I no longer demand for them to be cured. Procreation requires certain sexual activities. Homosexuality activity is not one of them.

 

[karrie]

karrie `not too manly` means what?

Society doesn't mind seeing lesbians so long as they're 'pretty' lesbians that men might think they have a chance with. Seeing butch lesbians though tends to make men look away, or make a rude comment about 'dykes', etc. Perhaps it's just my jaded perception though.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

A group that makes up something around five percent of the adult population cannot be normal.

Juan, that is the problem, isn’t it? What is normal, and who defines that is normal? At one point in time, being black was not considered normal. Woman working outside home was considered something abnormal, something blasphemous once upon a time. There probably are more gays than there are left handed people (I think so, I don’t have the statistics). Is being left handed abnormal, does that also fill you up with the same revulsion?

Society decides what is normal, based upon the prejudices, biases of its members, and what is normal very much differs from place to place and from time to time. Being normal is grossly overrated; we are all abnormal in one way or another.

 

[#juan]

A group that makes up something around five percent of the adult population cannot be normal.

Juan, that is the problem, isn’t it? What is normal, and who defines that is normal? At one point in time, being black was not considered normal. Woman working outside home was considered something abnormal, something blasphemous once upon a time. There probably are more gays than there are left handed people (I think so, I don’t have the statistics). Is being left handed abnormal, does that also fill you up with the same revulsion?

Society decides what is normal, based upon the prejudices, biases of its members, and what is normal very much differs from place to place and from time to time. Being normal is grossly overrated; we are all abnormal in one way or another.

Normal: Something regarded as a normative example......Being approximately average.

In matters of sexuality, 95 percent of the population are heterosexual and 5 percent are homosexual. By those numbers, normal would be heterosexual. I also said that it was normal to expect that five percent of the population would be homosexual. I expressed no revulsion at either turn of events.