Lesbians are totally cool. Even gross old lady ones who like to rub raisins, as portrayed by Annette Bening. Hell, lesbians who eat their own box are cool. They win major awards. But if you’ve got a dick, you’d better like sticking it in a lady. And if you don’t, you’d better keep it to yourself. And if you do have a dick and like sticking it in a lady but decide to share a platonic man kiss during prime time, you’ll be censored. Because dudes kissing is icky.
To be fair, this was probably more ABC’s doing than the Academy’s. The Academy has been awarding on-screen man love as far back as Jonathan Demme’s Philadelphia. They would go on to nominate Brokeback Mountain for best picture in 2005 (although they couldn’t bring themselves to give it the award) and gave best actor to Sean Penn for Milk in 2008. So progress is being made. Network television is just the backwoods of the entertainment industry. They can subject us to four excruciating hours of the James and Anne show, but feel the need to protect us from a little lip brush.
I hope this gets out and next year Fred Phelps and his cronies picket the Oscars for being “fag enablers.” It would make for a much more interesting show.
