Known as one of the greatest queer romances in cinematic history, Brokeback Mountain is a film adaption of Annie Proulx's short-story of the same name which tells the story of two cowboys, Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist, living in the Midwest during the early 1960’s. The two, whilst stewarding sheep across “Brokeback mountain,” fall in love but must face the challenge of going back to their heterosexual lifestyles following an early snowfall that forces them to leave the mountain prematurely. From this point on, the characters are separated by time and space as the film weaves throughout their lives outside of the mountain as they try to navigate their identities and relationship in a time that forbids their love. In terms of gender and sexuality, …show more content…
To begin, purely logistically, Brokeback Mountain’s depiction of gay sex is sloppy at best—in initially penetrating Jack, Ennis spits onto his hand (once) and rubs it on his penis in order to lubricate Jack’s anus prior to having sex. Whilst this may be a practice that some wish to partake in, when Lehmiller speaks about anal sex happening, he speaks of using generous amounts of lubricant so as to prevent trauma to the anus and make penetration easier. There is also the presence of alcohol and a sense of violence that encompass this sexual encounter so as to ease both men into the role of being queer without actually making them less masculine and taking away any aspect of consent—presenting a vision of non-heterosexual sex as something that is less than a connection between two individuals that care for one another and more as something that is happenstance, that “don’t mean nothing,’” in the words of Ennis himself. In this way, the movie also projects heteronormative stereotypes onto both characters by refusing to embrace or deal with the queerness of these individual characters, instead choosing to romanticize their mental anguish, hearkening back to a time when being non-heterosexual was seen as a disease in the psychiatry profession. By refusing to engage in this topic due to both Ennis’ and Jack’s internalized homophobia, stemming from deep-seated hegemonically masculine values, it can be seen that although it does try, Brokeback Mountain is less interested in invalidating stereotypes of gay men as it is in broadening traditionally masculine norms through an ironically homophobic