Is Brokeback Mountain a Case of "Situational Homosexuality"?

Article written by Maya Vukovska

Are Ennis and Jack gay, or just a couple of "situational homosexuals", or is that just a myth entirely?

“You boys found a way to make the time pass up there, didn’t you?” That’s the sarcastic, roundabout way of Joe Aguirre, a homophobic miser, to allude that he had seen through binoculars his employees, Jack and Ennis, have sex while pasturing his sheep up in the mountain. The Brokeback mountain. But hey, what else could two young men at their sexual peak do when completely alone in the middle of nowhere, for a long period of time, and in times when smartphones were not invented yet!

Some movie critics and journalists refuse to classify Ang Lee’s classic “Brokeback Mountain” (2005) as a “gay movie.” And there is some reason behind that - after all, both Ennis and Jack declare that they are not gay during their first summer together. But if not closeted gay, then what are they? Two poor cowboys who are suddenly caught up in a passion for each other? If that’s the case, then we are talking about situational homosexuality.

Sex needed… at any cost

The other name that psychologists ascribe to the sexual activity with same-sex partners that happens not as a part of a gay lifestyle such as “emergency homosexuality.” In other words: two (or more!) straight people having sex with each other when no opportunities for heterosexual activity are present at the moment.

Some men would sarcastically grin at such an explanation of sex between, аs they’ll call them, closeted gays. Others would remember the time when they were 13-year old kids, who’d go to Johnny’s place after football practice, sit on the couch, and jerk off at his Dad’s secret porn tapes.

What’s the difference then between homosexuality and situational homosexuality? Supposedly, the difference might be subtle, but is there. To start with, homosexuality is not a choice; it’s a sexual orientation one is born with, and no matter how hard you try to be straight and act straight, you cannot reverse your sexuality. With situational homosexuality, one chooses to be gay. Yet, there must be some innate, born-with inclination for one to make such a choice, even if they do not realize it.

There’s something about many males in a confined space…

The idea of situational sex is not new. Wherever men have found themselves in same-sex environment for a prolonged period, they tend not to be picky when it comes to satisfying the carnal urges. Environments, where situational homosexuality thrives, include ships at sea, prisons, military bases, boarding schools, monasteries, and convents.

The male soldiers, for example, have taken comfort and sexual gratification in each other’s arms since forever - from the militaries of ancient Greece to the trenches of the two World Wars to Desert Storm. In priesthood, homosexuality has long been considered “one of the miseries of the church”, as Pope Benedict once put it. Situational homosexuality was extremely common also in all-male boarding schools, especially in English private schools in the 1940s and 50s. The “prefect-fagging” system was established by Thomas Arnold, a 19th-century English educator and historian, with the purpose to enhance the ‘character building’ of the boys. Under this system, bonds, platonic and sexual, between older and younger students were facilitated and encouraged. “Prefects” were chosen by the teachers, and “fags” were chosen among the cutest new boys, who were also given female nicknames.

Captain Jack Sparrow may have been situational gay, too

Have you heard the word “matelotage”? No? Me neither. Until recently. It’s French for “seamanship.” The term was used in the 17th and 18th centuries to label the gay civil union among sailors. Well, pirates, to be more precise. Under matelotage, one could have all their possessions joined to the assets of their male civil partner, who was called “matelot”, or a “bunkmate.” In interviews, Johnny Depp has revealed that he drew on the romantic stories about gay pirates in playing the iconic character of Jack Sparrow in Pirate of the Caribbean. And when asked by the movie’s executives why, the fuck, he insisted on doing this, Depp replied, “All my characters are gay.”

From the Golden Age of piracy, let’s go back to our heroes, Ennis and Jack. If you’re still contemplating the idea of them not being gays, but just two straight guys caught in a passionate moment, let me give you one last piece of food for your thoughts. Even if we chose to classify Brokeback Mountain as a “not gay” movie, it still does not remove Ennis from the most standard sub-classification of “gay”. And that’s the closet.