The "Brooney" photo shoot, I'm calling it.
Why?
I decided to give Brad and George one of those mash-up, celebrity couple names, you know; for their bromance.
Why?
I want it to sweep the nation. Nay, the GLOBE!
Whatevs. Anyways, I believe they're calling that a "blended name." And I believe it's also a portmanteau word. In any event, I like Brad's purple outfit.
I do too. To a point. Sagittarians look awesome in purple. It's otherwise a really difficult color to--
So, get to the point.
Okay, first of all, we need to talk about GQ magazine and if it has an "agenda" because if it does, they've totally confused me.
Do you read the magazine?
Yes. More like skim it. Oh a portmanteau is a kind of suitcase, by the way.
Okay, how about this?
Oh, we don't talk about price at GQ anymore.
We don't?
If you have to ask, you can't afford it.
Then who are these clothes for? I mean, let's examine Brad's outfit.
The purple one?
Yeah.
It's really more a maroon, don't you--
Whatever.
Now, that shirt, which let's face it, is a blouse; I , for one love. I had several like it back in the day; but they're hard to find nowadays. As a matter of fact, I love that style so much I even have a couple that are actually women's garments; but they fit me, so I wear them. I guess it's the most masculine, ultra-feminine look there is?
Outside of the puffy shirt.
Well, yeah. Not that there's anything wrong with puffy shirts...
How much is the shirt?
Guess.
Ah...$350.00?
Higher.
$500.00?
Higher.
$1000.00?
Higher.
Oh, just tell me.
ONE THOUSAND NINE-HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS. That's, $1,950.00.
Wow. That shirt would be trash after one night at the disco, which is really the only place you could wear it.
And they say Brad eschews the ole Speedstick. And bathing all together, I guess.
Well, I'll believe that when I smell it.
Those pants are the bomb. I love the single, inverted pleat.
Me too! Also hard to find. Oh, the pants are twenty-two hundred. The shoes are around nine hundred and his "belt" is about five hundred. So, all together that one outfit is about fifty-five hundred dollars. Now, can I just add that I think even Brad can't pull off that "belt"? The scarf/necktie as belt is the proprietary property of Fred Astaire and should remain so. Also, no man can pull off an ear flower anywhere other than one of the Hawaiian islands. Maybe Fiji, even.
Who can afford that outfit? I mean, other than Brad Pitt or George Clooney? Who even reads GQ?
I used to. In fact, I started reading it in the late 70's and early 80's when I first was becoming interested in fashion.
Wasn't the magazine kind of...gay, then.
Like super gay! Super-duper gay even! It was the era of Bruce Weber and boy do I have a bone to pick with him, so to speak.
Lay it on me Reidy!
The year was 1981ish. Women were women and had to deal with sexism. Men were men and didn't. Not, that is, until this appeared above Times Square:
My beef is that this image became so ubiquitous in not just gay male circles but all male circles; that it caused men to have, particularly gay men, to live up to some nearly unobtainable "ideal" of male beauty. "This is what I'm supposed to look like?" I recalled asking myself. Not only thin, but muscular and Apollolonialy handsome?
Women have had to deal with that shit since the dawn of time. Try looking like Twiggy. Or Cindy Crawford. Or Tyra Banks. Or Kate "nothing tastes as good as skinny feels" Moss.
No, you're absolutely right. But this image made it even harder for a man to be gay, even within the gay community.
How?
Well, now he not only had to worry about coming out in a hostile world; but coming out in a community that expected him to look like this and in many ways rejected him if he didn't. And I have to lay the blame for this at GQ's doorstep. And its wunderkind photographer of the time, Mr. Bruce Weber. And I guess we need to include Calvin Klein as well.
What did Weber do?
I would argue he pushed an aesthetic that was dishonest on a core level.
How so?
Well, first of all, he was extremely coy about his own sexuality.
So?
He was pushing photos of male pulchritude and not being forthright about his own attraction to his subjects; and that he was indeed pushing this propaganda.
Propaganda?
Fashion propaganda.
How was he being coy?
Oh, I recall at the time whenever he was asked about the homoeroticism of his photos and the unbelievable beauty of his male subjects--the implication being put forth: "Are you into guys, Bruce?" His response would be vague and he'd mention his wife and the wholesomeness of the straight "boys" and not cop to what he was doing.
What was he doing?
Well, gaysploitation. He may have invented it.
You sound mad.
I am. It points up his dishonesty.
About what?
Going bald.
Now you're being bitchy.
Am I?
So, show me a "gaysploitative" Bruce Weber photo.
Okay, how about this?
Is it though? How about this?
Looks like it.
Sure, they're just brothers who like to hang out together; 'cuz, you know, twins.
And wear matching, complementary outfits?
Sure, twins do stuff like that all the time!
When they're in their early 20's?
Well, ah...sure...sure they do!
'Memba this?
Indubitably.
He was in the Navy?
Sure.
Turns out, he's been accused of all kinds of sexual misconduct and sued by male models and settled out of court, yada-yada -yada. So, basically he was creeping and skeezing and sleazing during his Wholesome-All-American-Male Photofests. And I don't have to use the word "allegedly."
So, you feel this points up a sort of hypocrisy?
Oh, sort of.
What's he photographing now?
Oh, absolutely nothing that could be seen as gaysploitation!
You know, if he'd just been honest forty-two years ago and been like, "Yeah, I'm hot for these dudes and want every man in America to look like them, even though they can't--it's all a fantasy..." Maybe I wouldn't.
Getting back to Brad and George. How is their photo shoot "gaysploitation"? Maybe it's a good thing, like you seem to think the Grant/Scott pictures were.
Okay, here's the thing. This is what I have the problem with. Let's say there's this imaginary line. Let's call it the "Queerdadero Line."
Meaning...
Meaning, that on one side of the line you're playing with being gay. Being insincere about it. Exploiting it for whatever reason; be that to shock, to titillate, to push an envelope, because it's a fad... not being honest about what you're up to with your photography...because you feel superior to it. That it's something not to take seriously. On the other side of the line is being honest about being gay--and I'm talking about gay men here and what they do--depicting gayness without ironic quotes. It seems to me that Brad and George and Deadpool and Wolverine are coming right up to that line without daring to cross over it--
Why wouldn't they cross over it?
Because then they really would be "gay." What if instead of just matching turtlenecks and lavendar pajamas and twee teacups, there was a picture of Brad and George in a bed, in their underwear with their arms around one another?
Well, they couldn't do that. They'd be crossing the Queerdadero Line.
That's my point.
Why?
Because they're marketing the film by straddling, if not crossing, the Queerdadero Line and not being honest about it within the story the movie is telling.
Can you elaborate?
Sure. If you read reviews of the movie, reviewers--mostly male--keep referencing Deadpool/Wade Williams/Ryan Reynolds non-stop stream of verbal "gay panic."
What's "gay panic"?
(SIGHS) Let's ask HAL to define it for us; because I don't feel like it. Here's the genesis term:
So, does Deadpool panic gaily? Does he commit violent crimes against homosexuals?
Well, he's constantly impaling people with knives, swords and adamantium thigh bones; like dozens of them. Often up the butt. And it's pretty violent. I suppose some of them might be homosexuals.
Is Wolverine a homosexual?
You'd have to ask him. But he's definitely an interspecies mutantsexual.
Is Deadpool an interspecies mutantsexual?
I'm gonna say yes. As long as the species/mutant has a vagina.
Chris, I thought we were keeping this "cute."
Okay. As long as the species/mutant has a lady cannoli.
Deadpool kept mentioning "pegging." What's that?
That's when a male man/mutant allows a lady to do him up his dude-Rolo with a happy-strap-on-ding-dong in order to ring his bell. I guess Deadpool is into getting his CocoaPuff chuffed that way.
But only if it's female?
Only.
Why wouldn't Deadpool want his chocolate donut glazed by a male? Because of his gay panic?
You know, I didn't see him panicing so much as enthusiastic, hard-sell hinting.
Why doesn't Wolverine take him up on it, so to speak.
Well, in a way he does.
He does?!!?
I think I like "Ryjack." You know, 'cuz Ryan is so "wry" and Hugh is so...jacked?
Works for me!
Where's their suitcase?
How 'bout this?
And they're both tourists. In America! Get it?
Oh, yeah...sure. That's, ah, really clever. I wonder why that gorilla is so mad.
Well, look at his living space. Can you blame him? But that's another blog. But speaking of pounding things; let's take a look at this clip which I feel is as much a symbolic sex scene as it is an ostensible fight.
You really like that ostensible word.
I do, obstensibly.
Well how many impalements and penetrations do you need?
Is it subconscious on the part of the filmmakers?
What do you think, based on all the double entendre marketing and using "You're The One That I Want" from Grease over it all?
Grease is the word!
TIME FOR A GREASE BREAK!
Never mind that. How is Deadpool and Wolverine's violent fight, "lovemaking," in your opinion?
Well, the motor vehicle is a pretty commonplace (and a common place) for schtupping. And then there's "make-up" sex. And they keep piercing and piercing one another when they know neither can die; so that would be pointless; but it does give them and excuse for close body contact, bodily fluid exchange, heavy breathing, etc. That and that Deadpool has been talking nonstop about pegging, cinnamon rings and using Wolverine's helmet wings as knob-slobbing handles.
I think I'm starting to get it. So the idea is, let's have Wolverine and Deadpool f*** the shit out of one another but do it with swords and stuff instead of penises and have the copious amounts of blood stand in for...what's the word? Keep it cute--
Splooge?
Yeah that. And that way, they don't have to cross the Queerorama line.
Queerdadero.
Whatever.
And using a song from a movie that appeals highly to teenage girls and also the childish use of pre-adolescent romantic expressions, such as the heart with the loved one's initials within renders everything a joke we can all just giggle at, like schoolboys.
And that takes us back to gaysploitation. Although, looking at the scene again, by the end of it, they're like literally talking about f***ing; so the movie gets to have it's cake and eat it too!
Yes! Time for a cake break!
I think I read somewhere the original title was "F*** By The Ocean." And it does include that word. They didn't let that through on the radio, did they?
I'm thinking it was bleeped, maybe?
Maybe. So, any last thoughts, Chris?
Of course!
Lay 'em on me baby!
Okay, so these Deadpool movies are supposed to be so "cutting edge" with their envelope pushing contents and obscene language and casual violence and ostensible alternative-sexuality-inclusivity; so why didn't we get an actual sex scene between Deadpool and Wolverine? Like and honest to goodness: oh, we're going there scene where the two dudes get it on; kinda like in CRASH when James Spader goes for it with Elias Koteas. LIke, no giggling; like, oh, this is really happening and you know what? It's HOT.
That movie was pretty up front about everything it presented; so, no. And I gotta say, James Spader was/is a pretty fearless actor.
Isn't he from Massachusetts?
Masshole born and raised!
So Chris, how would you write the Wolverine & Deadpool "love" scene.
Well, there are several way you could go, so to speak.
I'm listening...
You could play the gay scene straight.
Wait, what?
That is to say, you could do it honestly and straightforwardly. They're squabbling and scrapping...they stop to breathe...look into each other's eyes...kiss deeply...profess their true feelings and "make love" in the back of the Honda. That doesn't exactly fit the tone of this movie though--
No, it doesn't.
And I don't think this movie and its depiction of these characters is worthy of it.
What else could we do?
A super hard "R" kind of Paul Verhoven type thing that comes as close to porn as possible.
No. It's Dizzney. Not gonna happen.
Or, you could make it comedic. Keep everyone's blades sheathed, so to speak; but they do have sex.
Let's go with that! Will you write it?
Sure. You know, watching the movie, I was thinking that the Honda Odyssey had to be nothing more than product placement. I have never known that car to be thought of as lame, goofy, nerdy or comedic; which the movie kept telling me it was. There is one vehicle, however, that meets all that criteria and then some. The Pontiac Aztek. I found a commercial that synchronicitously synched up with what I had in mind. Let's take a look!
So, I'm almost finished with what I'm calling The Deadpool & Wolverine Love Scene; but I really want to wrap this up. And I also have more I want to say about GQ magazine and my Theory of Coats and so on...so I will post the "love scene" in an upcoming blog. In the meantime, ladies and gentlemen and all, I will post the remainder of the Cary Grant and Randolph Scott "roommate" pictures. After this word from, Renuzit!