Several intriguing remarks about Mel Gibson’s movie on the death of Jesus, The Passion of the Christ, were made on PBS’s Charlie Rose show (2/25). Christopher Hitchens, a journalist, couldn’t understand why a homophobe like Gibson could ‘ … make a film that would appeal to the gay Christian sado-masochistic niche market.’ David Denby, a Newsweek writer, called Passion a ‘two-hour snuff film.’ (Hitchens also pointed out while Gibson, as requested, took out the direct anti-semitic quote from the Gospel of Matthew about the blood of Christ being on all Jews and their children, he only removed it from the written sub-titles, not from the Aramaic spoken language. This may cause problems for the Aramaic speaking audience).
An editorial from one of Chicago’s neighborhood papers, the Lerner Skyline (2/26) illustrates the nationwide paradox about gay marriage. Backing Mayor Daley on the subject it says: ‘And it’s about time.’ All over the media, the liberal press is coming out for gay marriage and all over the media, gay politicians are being much more cautious. Even Ald. Tom Tunney, the openly gay alderman of Chicago’s 44th Ward, says the push for gay marriage is ‘putting the cart before the horse.’ Could it be that the issue has taken on a momentum of its own and is just plain running over those who are standing around saying, ‘Wait a min…?’
In a review of the new Bernardo Bertolucci film, The Dreamers, Professor Elayne Rapping has a different take on male nudity vs. female nudity in film: women have a variety of body areas suitable for male scopophilia (‘the love of looking’). If a woman looks at a nude man he only has one area that counts, and if that, indeed is a shortcoming NOTHING makes up for it. Rapping also says that (straight) men are nervous about male frontal nudity for homophobic (or homosexual panic) reasons. Film distributor Stephen Gilula says that Americans would simply rather see extreme violence than sexuality.
The Chicago Tribune (2/22) hints that the now-defunct world of Sex and the City has moved across country and transmogrified into The L Word. Jennifer Beals, et. al., are all femmes (lipstick and heels), and seem to spend just as much per capita on Gucci, Prada and Pringle clothes as Sarah Jessica Parker and her friends. The major differences seem to be: better weather and better looking. No diesel dykes to be seen, not a Birkenstock nor a soccer field in sight. (And at last it can be said, by an acquaintance, not by the Trib, ‘We won’t have to look at S. J. Parker looking like John Kerry in drag any more.’) As if to prove the transfer from N.Y. chic to L.A. lesbian chic, the only actual lesbian in the new show, Leisha Hailey, pointed out that ‘lesbians don’t wear purses!’ However, she goes on, ‘… now I’ve come to realize that’s not true, and I’ve come to wear one myself.’