Hollywood in a gay frenzy

2003 Hollywood wasn't ready for John Singleton's seminal take on the gayness of the macho culture. His film, the sizzling 2 fast 2 furious, starred the handsome Paul Walker as an undercover cop infiltrating the male world of street racing. What could be manlier than fast cars and broad chests? But instead of being showered with praise and awards he was ridiculed for what essentially would be a mile stone in Hollywood history. The question is if we would have Brokeback mountain if Singleton hadn’t laid the foundation.

Instead we had to wait until 2005 and Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain before the gay frenzy would hit tinsel town. In Ang Lee’s movie we explore another bastion of maleness, the Marlboro man and his lonely life on the prairie. Ever since we were old enough to understand the concept of macho there have always been jokes about what happens in the showers of our favourite hockey team or how the fire men make the time pass before they have to descend the pole for another sweaty encounter. So in reality Ang hasn’t really done something to help the gay community. Instead he has chosen to explore the male stereotypes and their thinly veiled homosexuality just as the teenagers laugh about the prospect of Peter Forsberg soaping up another player in the shower.

Stereotypes or not Hollywood has jumped the bandwagon and I would bet that every script writer in Hollywood is thinking hard how to create the next gay John McClane at the moment. Rumour has it that even Brad Pitt wants to be gay so there is always the possibility of a homosexual fight club or some hard vampire action to look forward to.

In the past gay people have been confined to roles such as serial killers or hair dressers but now Hollywood is open to those who dare to further strengthen the prejudice concerning macho culture and its hidden world of gay love. this might be a good time for Dolph Lundgren to make a comeback.