We live in a time when gays and lesbians are seeking rights and freedoms. To me, homosexuality itself is not without significance, what matters is the spirit it represents, the social development trend and the human weakness behind it.
Why is it not easy for our society as a whole to accept homosexuality? After all, it is because it is "abnormal". What is abnormal? It's just that there are relatively few people who have this kind of behavior. So one of our human weaknesses is that we like to "go with the flow". But why are you slowly accepting it from the beginning? In the final analysis, it is "snobbery". When more and more celebrities come forward and say they are gay, it's easy to accept the odd behavior of the minority. When enough celebrities stand up, they will dominate public opinion, and the "big trend" will become "homosexuality is actually quite normal".
In 2004, support for same-sex marriage in American society was only 38%. In February of that year, then-President George W. Bush called for a constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage, arguing that homosexuality was a corruption of American values, and 11 states subsequently voted against same-sex marriage. And 10 years later, the number of people who support same-sex marriage has reached 59%. On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled by a 5-4 vote that same-sex marriage is constitutional. The ruling means same-sex marriage is legal in all 50 states, and bans on same-sex marriage are lifted in 14 states. The United States has thus become the 21st country in the world to recognize same-sex marriage.
Homosexual themes have been embraced by Hollywood ever since homosexuals began campaigning for their social rights. In addition to the fact that homosexual themes are easy to cause audience criticism and social topics, the homosexual elements will show very different metaphors under different themes: In the "Philadelphia Story", the homosexual elements are metaphors for their own social rights, so to a certain extent The one who can best understand the feelings of homosexuals is African American; in "Brokeback Mountain", the homosexual element is a metaphor for the difficulties of pursuing love; in "I love you, Philips Morris", the homosexual element is to discover oneself, not to stick to the rules, A metaphor for the pursuit of freedom; in "The Moments," the gay element is a metaphor for self-esteem; in "Dallas Buyers Club," the gay element is a metaphor for the distance between people; in "The Imitation Game" , the homosexual element is a trope of our innermost secrets that cannot be told to others, and a metaphor for society's mutilation of minorities; in Infamous, the homosexual element is a metaphor for how the underprivileged can survive in this cruel world: Finally, Truman Capote finds Showing off your uniqueness in high society is not finding your true self, but betraying yourself.
Today we are going to talk about "I love you, Philips Morris". In my opinion, this is one of the greatest romance films Hollywood has ever made, because its true feelings transcend the gulf of sexuality and allow all audiences to understand the power of love that overcomes all. While it's a straight-up gay movie, we don't have the awareness that we're watching gay stories all the time. Much of this is due to Ewan McGregor's image of a lovable gay man. His cuteness can almost make every man recall the image of the girl he liked in his childhood, which makes the audience have a very strong sense of substitution and can subconsciously accept and understand homosexuality. So, Hollywood has played a very crucial role in the struggle for gay rights. Being able to show the protagonist fighting for his own rights as in The Philadelphia Story is certainly admirable, but a smarter approach is to subconsciously convince the audience that gay love is no different from love in general, as Brokeback Mountain and this film did.
First of all, the film introduces how the protagonist finds himself. Since the protagonist was abandoned by his mother since childhood, he cared so much about the approval of others that he started a family, had children, and became a model police officer who went to church to catch criminals. But after a car accident, determined to live his life, he ditched his family, his career, moved to Florida, and became a thoroughly gay man. Not only that, but to support his lavish gay life, he became a liar.
When he was arrested, his wife asked his boyfriend weakly: "Are you saying that his being gay is related to being a liar?" What she means is "Are all gays liars?" It is conceivable that if the audience views it from the wrong angle, it will create an illusion that "gays are all liars". Even in English, "Go Straight" has the meaning of becoming heterosexual and returning to justice. But in fact, the answer to her original question was yes: after the protagonist decides to be herself, she no longer cares about the opinions of others. Whether it is a change in sexual orientation or the beginning of breaking the law, it is a manifestation of the pursuit of freedom in life. Therefore, in modern culture, we often regard gay coming out as a metaphor for insisting on being ourselves and pursuing freedom. The spirit of homosexuality is actually very consistent with the spirit of the mainstream culture advocated by the United States, but the United States is far behind other countries in legalizing homosexuality.
Sometimes I'm a little puzzled by gay people trying to legalize marriage. In my opinion, homosexuality and marriage are two completely opposite concepts. Homosexuality is to fight for the freedom of life, while marriage is the shackles of life. Homosexuals want to pursue legalization of marriage and the spirit of homosexuals going their own way is simply the opposite. Legalizing gay marriage was a major victory for gay people's human rights, but it was also the end of a great era for gays and lesbians. When homosexuality is illegal, homosexuals can withstand social pressure, break the rules, stick to their own way of life in front of everyone's eyes, and be able to summon the courage to fight for their social rights, which is an example for each of us to learn from . But once homosexuality was legalized, it became very common and no longer had the special meaning and uplifting power it once had. It is conceivable that the unconventional gays who fought so hard to get their civil rights must be very depressed now: because they don't have to fight for their rights anymore, and what makes them sadder is that they find themselves struggling The hard-earned marriage isn't really right for you. I think these gays will be the first people who want to fight to free human life from the shackles of marriage.
Knowing that he is going to go to jail, the male protagonist is scared to death and tries to commit suicide. But after being in prison, who knows that he is like a duck in water, getting along very well, not only knowing all the important people, but also constantly learning the law. In the library, he met the beloved Philips Morris. They first wrote love letters to each other, and then, under the operation of the hero, actually lived in a cell and lived happily together.
Of course, the good times didn't last long, and the protagonist was transferred again. But this separation made their love even stronger. So the protagonist begins to deceive the government by any means to get his beloved out of prison. In order to live a good life together, he faked his academic qualifications and recommendation letters and found a job as chief financial officer. Unexpectedly, with his wisdom, he has done a very good job, helping the company to achieve huge profits. Here he can actually live a comfortable and peaceful life. But he still did not change his nature and continued to steal money from the company's running water. In the end, he not only went to jail again, but also lost the trust of his beloved. Even so, he did not give up, went on a comprehensive diet, pretended to be a dying AIDS patient, and finally slipped out of prison again.
Speaking of which, I suddenly realized that this movie is a gay version of Catch me if you can. Spielberg's Cat and Mouse is also about a liar, but the director himself Not only does not condemn the actions of the liar, but also confesses that he is actually the protagonist of the story. "Cat and Mouse" is Spielberg's most personal work: if he hadn't sneaked into a movie studio to study film as a child and grew up in a broken home, there wouldn't be a young Spielberg workaholic . All truly successful people are not good at breaking the rules, not comfortable with the status quo.
Although in this movie, the protagonist is a liar from beginning to end (first lied to himself, then lied to others), but his spirit of breaking social rules and overcoming all difficulties for love is really touching. And I think the crooks who can invent scams are really talented people. As more and more celebrities come out, we have to start realizing that "gays are talented". what is the reason? Not only because they may use their brains differently from ordinary people, but also because they have learned to survive in the cracks since childhood. Just like the reason why the Jews are so good is not only because of their special genes, but also because they are often persecuted, so they understand the impermanence of fate better than the average person, know how to live in the moment, and inspire them to burst out the spark of life. This may be why minorities tend to be good: Minorities need to break the rules of society to survive, and breaking the rules is an important way to succeed.
When a contagious idea is presented in the right social context and at the right time, it can spread like dominoes. When an era comes, the trend of change will be unstoppable. Our human society is generally developing towards freedom The freedom of marriage reveals that marriage itself is a shackle, and then our entire society will attempt to abolish the institution of marriage. Sooner or later, we will have enough people who will support the rights and freedoms of animals, let every pig and every chicken be registered, and protect them from arbitrary slaughter. In the end, we humans will want to get rid of the shackles of the flesh and live in the information world as described in "Super Body". It may sound like a fantasy, but I think these freedom-fighting things will inevitably happen sooner or later.
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