I was talking to a dude from Time magazine and even used the exact comparison when telling him about the popularity of the “The King and the Clown” in Korea, “It’d be like if ‘Brokeback Mountian’ was a popular as ‘Titanic.’”

http://img213.imageshack.us/im.....3ju8ys.jpg

I take it lesbian scenes are fine but gay man scenes? Too uncomfortable?

I think I can speak for most straight men when I say that regardless of how we feel about two guys getting down on screen, lesbian scenes are always fine. In fact, lesbian scenes are probably under-utilized in Hollywood. I think Halle Berry and Salma Hayek should show a little freakin’ dedication to their craft by making a lesbo film.

On a more serious note (not that lesbians making out on screen isn’t serious), I forget who I was reading, but she raised a really good point, I thought, by noting the seeming contradiction in Hollywood where openly gay actors can play romantic male leads, but openly lesbian actresses cannot play romantic female leads. I’m sure if I thought about that for a while, I could probably come up with some reasons why, but it seemed like an interesting comment at the time.

But then when these same people who (in Korea) have formed a false sense of comfort about the idea see something like Brokeback, well, at least the guy I was with reacted really strongly and kind of negatively, which surprised me based on how much he loved the King and the Clown and the discussions we had about homosexuality as a result of whatever it was he saw in that movie.

At first I was really annoyed by his reaction regarding Borkeback and I kept hitting him in the theater telling him to shut up, especially during the tent scene. He was squirming around, hiding his face and loudly making a scene.

But then after the movie he started to obsess over it all, insisting that he isn’t insecure or homophobic and how he wants to have a gay friend because I guess he thinks it’s “in” or something.

Then a few days later we were having a few beers at my place and without realizing it, I put my beer bottle between my legs as I reached out to grab something off my desk and the guy totally flipped out saying it brought back flashbacks of Brokeback and a scene where he noticed there were “strategically placed beer bottles.”

It must be a straight man thing, right? No matter what your culture is, east or west…You can be open to the concept of homosexuality but when you see homosexuality in your face like it was in Brokeback, it sort of freaks you out right? I take it The King and the Clown sort of touched on the topic enough to cause discussion but not really hmm…”explore” the issue as such?

When it comes to homosexual scenes with straight men (apparently Korean or otherwise), I take it lesbian scenes are fine but gay man scenes? Too uncomfortable?

When I first got to Korea and saw men arm in arm, putting their hands on other men’s thighs, girls holding hands and wearing chinos and plaid shirts (the official lesbian uniform of West Hollywood, at least in the 1990s) I thought this whole country was gay.